“Everything Must Go” features another dramatic turn by Will Ferrell. Ferrell has established a track record of dramatic performances that have flown right under the radar. I suggest you seek out “Winter Passing”, “Strange Than Fiction” and now this movie.
In “Everything Must Go” Ferrell plays Nick Halsey. He is a travelling salesman who is fired from his job of fifteen years following an incident stemming from his alcoholism. When he returns home he finds his wife has left, changed the locks and put all his possessions out on the front lawn. It is then that he decides to simply live on his lawn, getting loaded.
Ferrell is pretty much the whole show and his performance pretty tragic. Here we see a side of Ferrell we have not seen before. He is bottomed out, ready to snap, comfortable in his lawn furniture. There is a real sadness to this man, yet we feel like he could bounce back. Too bad he doesn’t know that.
“Everything Must Go” was written and directed by Dan Rush. I am not familiar with his work but I will certainly look out for him again.
