‘Luckiest Man’ charms but can’t reach bonus round
It’s no “Quiz Show,” but “The Luckiest Man in America” earns its place in the pantheon of movies depicting TV game show scandals. For that, credit co-writer-director Samir Oliveros for spinning the wheel and landing on Paul Walter Hauser, a jackpot if there ever was one.
He portrays Michael Larson, an unemployed ice cream truck driver who cracked the algorithm and piled up cash prizes at will in May 1984 on CBS’s daytime entry “Press Your Luck.” His morally questionable methods garnered him a then-record $110,000 before the show’s panicked producers put a stop to it. That much is fact, but the rest of Oliveros’s recreation of the event is pure speculation. That’s both the film’s strength and its most significant liability.
He and co-writer Maggie Briggs misguidedly attempt to play it down the middle with their melding of fact and fiction. It would have been far more adventurous to simply say “the hell with it” and go all out in playing up the numerous quirks exhibited by the endearingly peculiar Larson. Hauser, looking much like Steve Bannon behind a thick beard and long unruly hair, certainly appears game to elevate his character to the next level of weird. And you can almost sense his frustration with the restriction imposed by Oliveros and Briggs.
It leaves you feeling a bit cheated. Not that what’s here isn’t compelling. It is. And Hauser is the reason, delivering a remarkable performance that cuts to the core in an examination of a man so often denied his shot at the American dream that he’s driven to cutting corners. There’s an unmistakable air of entitlement pervading Larson’s arrogance; he’s not cheating, but in his mind, merely claiming what’s his.
There’s a lot of that going around in this country of late. Leave it to a foreigner like Oliveros, a native of Colombia, to quickly recognize this pattern through observation, much like his titular character memorized the sequencing on “Press Your Luck’s” Big Board. But Oliveros didn’t need to spend hours poring over “Press Your Luck” videotapes like Larson did. He just stopped and looked around.
Might we be too blind to this sanctimony to recognize hints of our grubby-handed politicians in Larson, a grifter who deftly capitalized on his Midwestern charm to pull off numerous scams in a life that ended at age 49? I suspect we are, which might explain why detecting Michael Larson’s distorted mindset is so challenging.
I wanted to know more about him, his methods, motivations and most immediate, the cockiness that belies the rube exterior. But Oliveros isn’t letting on. He seems more intrigued by the folks unwittingly sucked into Larson’s orbit, namely Bill Carruthers (David Strathairn), the executive producer of “Press Your Luck,” and his top assistant, Chuck Turner (Shamier Anderson), determined to follow his instincts and prove Larson a fraud. We’re privy to several clashes between the two execs inside the control room. But it never fully registers, with Carruthers looking feckless and Chuck obsessed to the point of self-parody.
Add to their beef a flummoxed emcee in Walton Goggins’ Peter Tomarken, driven by his superiors to find a way to foil Larson, and you begin to feel overwhelmed. Ditto for a big-hearted CBS page (“Game of Thrones” vet Maise Williams), falling victim to the elaborate sob stories Larson weaves to further subvert the rules; and Haley Bennett in a far too brief turn as Larson’s estranged wife, Patricia. It’s all too much, especially in how scarcely their roles pay off.
This is where Hauser proves invaluable. His Larson is so fascinating that you’re drawn to him like a gravitational force. He doesn’t divulge much about the man he’s playing, but he does convey exactly what it is that makes Larson such a consummate con man. You know he’s a liar. That’s revealed early on when he steals the identity of a legitimate contestant to secure an audition. Yet, there’s something about the guy we and Carruthers can’t resist.
The latter grows to regret it, sure, but like Larson, he comes out smelling like a rose. In that respect, they’re both the luckiest men in America. Even luckier is Oliveros, who chose the perfect actor in Hauser to “come on down.” And no matter the cost, the price was right because everything about Hauser and his strangely affecting presentation is money.
Movie review
The Luckiest Man in America
Rated: R for language
Cast: Paul Walter Hauser, Walton Goggins, David Strathairn, Shamier Anderson, Maise Williams, Haley Bennett, Johnny Knoxville, Patti Harrison and Brian Geraghty
Director: Samir Oliveros
Writer: Samir Oliveros and Maggie Briggs
Runtime: 90 minutes
Where: In theaters April 4 (limited)
Grade: B-
