Jerry & Marge Go Large (2022)

Well, another Sunday can only mean one thing. That’s right, we’re chugging along in our A-To-Z challenge with this week bringing us the letter “J”. This week we’re shown that sometimes it’s better to be good than lucky with Jerry & Marge Go Large (2022).

Title: Jerry & Marge Go Large

Director: David Frankel

Released: June 17, 2022

Runtime: 1 hour 36 minutes

Available to stream on: Paramount+

IMDb synopsis: Based on the true story about long-married couple Jerry and Marge Selbee, who win the lottery and use the money to revive their small town.

Jerry (Bryan Cranston) and Marge (Annette Bening) Selbee live in the small town of Evart, Michigan. After forty-two years as a production line manager, Jerry is being forced into retirement. While Jerry isn’t keen on the idea of retirement, Marge is thrilled at the idea of them both enjoying their golden years together.

As a retirement gift, Marge, his son Doug (Jake McDorman), and his daughter Dawn (Anna Camp) buy Jerry a boat. When Jerry decides to take it out for the first time, his truck begins rolling down the boat ramp into the water. Panicking that he might lose his truck, Jerry leaves the boat and hops into the truck and floors it. While he managed to save the truck, he forgot that the boat wasn’t completely off the trailer. The boat motor was absolutely destroyed as it was drug across the pavement.

While in his local convenience store, Jerry happens glance at the back of a lottery ticket. Here is the thing about Jerry, he’s really good with numbers. As he notices the odds on the back of the WinFall ticket, his brain kicks into high gear. Jerry has found a loophole in the WinFall lotto game. In short, buy enough tickets and the variable of luck is reduced to a point that favors the player every time. After testing his theory and realizing he was correct, the fun begins.

Jerry and Marge begin buying WinFall tickets by the thousands. Realizing that the more tickets they can buy the bigger their winnings will be, they decide to get their whole town in on the action. The people of Evart, Michigan are on board with the plan. But the people of Evart, they don’t want to spend their winnings on shiny new toys. They want to invest in the town and bring some life back to it.

So, what happens when the WinFall game is no longer available in Michigan? Well, if you’re Jerry and Marge, you’re retired so you go and find WinFall. They decide to drive to Massachusetts where WinFall is still an active game. Stopping in one of the first gas stations they see that offers Winfall, they meet Bill (Rainn Wilson) who runs the gas station. After multiple visits, Jerry and Marge let Bill in on their hustle. Without any hesitation, Bill is in and allows them to print their own tickets for however long it takes each time they pop in.

Things are back on track and the winnings are piling up. However, there’s another group that has caught onto the flaw and is starting to exploit it as well. A group of Harvard students are recruiting the wealthy friends of their parents to get in on the WinFall loophole. The group eventually confronts Jerry and tries to force him out of the game while still promising him a cut of the profits. But Jerry and Marge enjoy the travel and the good fortune that this all brings to Evart. So, what are they to do? Do they let the entitled and obnoxious Harvard kids do all the legwork while still getting a cut? Or is the smarter play to face them head on and show these kids that with age comes wisdom?

The fact that this is based on a true story is wild. The decision to tell the story in such a bland way is also wild. It isn’t that there’s anything horribly wrong with Jerry & Marge Go Large, it’s that there isn’t anything that’s particularly good about it either.

Bryan Cranston could make watching paint dry captivating. He is great as Jerry and is able to keep you engaged when he’s on-screen. Annette Bening playing the role of the woman wanting to bring excitement back into her life is great as well. Who really stood out in his brief time on camera was Larry Wilmore as Jerry’s accountant, Steve. We could have used more of Steve’s humor and less of the humor we actually got. There are a lot of “old people don’t get technology” jokes. There’s also a lot of forced “crazy old guy” gimmicks with Jerry. More often than not, both miss their landing.

What is nice though is that it’s a feel-good story. Who doesn’t love a nice feel-good story? Yes, the story, as it’s told to us, is bland. This probably would have been much more captivating if we focused more on Jerry and Marge as a character study. But sometimes simple and bland is okay. There’s nothing wrong with walking away from a movie thinking, “That was okay, but I’ll probably never watch it again.”

So, what do you think? Have you seen Jerry & Marge Go Large (2022)? If so, hit me with your thoughts and reviews in the comments below or by reaching out on social media!

Well, now that “J” is in the books, it’s time to look ahead to next week. Since I will be traveling this week, I’ve got the letter “K” in the can for you already. Next Sunday, Oscar Sunday, for the letter “K”, we’ll be reviewing Kansas City (1996) which is currently available to stream on Prime Video.