This film essentially begins with a man named "Gerry" (Bruce Mendelsohn) playing poker in a gambling house in Dubuque, Iowa. While playing another man by the name of "Curtis" (Ryan Reynolds) joins the group and after several hands offers to buy a drink for Gerry. One thing leads to another and soon Gerry and Curtis become good friends due mainly to their mutual interest in gambling. However, as time goes by it soon becomes apparent that Gerry is clearly addicted to gambling and doesn't know when to quit. As a result, Gerry is deeply in debt and the more he tries to gamble his way out of it the worse things become. Curtis, on the other hand, gambles mostly for excitement and is much more disciplined. Not only that, but Curtis also has an uncanny ability to read people and quickly surmises the challenges that come from being a friend of Gerry. And it's these traits that cause each of them to feel a mutual friendship to one another. Now, rather than reveal any more and risk ruining the film for those who haven't seen it, I will just say that I was not nearly as impressed with it as most other reviewers seem to be. For starters, the plot seemed to lose focus at times and the pace was much too slow for my tastes as well. Likewise, I didn't especially care for the ending all that much either. In short, although others may disagree, I found this film to be rather dull and pretentious and it's for those reasons that I have rated it slightly below average.
Review of Mississippi Grind
