Will Farrell has played his share of low comedy nincompoops but in Everything Must Go, set on a front lawn with a recliner chair next to all his worldly possessions, he’s both serious and a serious bore.
He plays Nick Halsey, devoid of depth and a recurring drunk. The film supposes you’d fall off the wagon, too if you lost your job and got simultaneously locked out of your house by your offscreen wife. Determined not to let it bother him any further, Nick decides to sleep on the recliner under the Arizona stars.
After running out of beer money (the wife messed up the credit cards, too) a far too precious, industrious, chubby neighborhood kid on a bike shows up and goads him into putting his motley junk spread all over the lawn up for sale on a no-end-in-sight yard sale. The kid (Christopher Jordan Wallace) is an equally annoying preteen version of the 7- or 8- year old girl in the TV commercial whose Dad starts her on a lemonade stand only to see her sprout up like a Mark Zuckerberg who eventually has her handlers screen her Dad with an “is he expecting you?”
Things go on, Nick cracks open a lot of PBR beer cans while not failing to attract to the house his AA-sponsor and cop (Michael Pena), a conveniently alone younger woman (a good Rebecca Hall) just moved in across the street, more cops, and crazed neighbors (including stud character actor Shea Wigham) that Nick eventually spies on.
Often ridiculous, Nick shaves in the backyard, catches a rinse in his poolside shower, drinks more Pabst, pisses in the pool, and manages to get off the recliner long enough to tell off and scare away Rebecca Hall. Looking through his high school year book, he”s encouraged by a positive note from an acquaintance (Laura Dern) who still lives in town. Off he goes to ring her doorbell. Needles to say their ensuing conversation, like this film, doesn’t amount to a hill of beans.
Director Dan Rush is a veteran commercials maker. Here his untidy and trifling product placement feels mostly tiring.
4 recliners out of 10
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