THE GOODS: LIVE HARD, SELL HARD

Directed by: Neal Brennan
Produced by: Will Ferrell & Adam McKay
Cast: Jeremy Piven, Jordana Spiro, Ving Rhames, David Koechner, Kathryn Hahn, James Brolin, Ed Helms, Tony Hale, Ken Jeong, Rob Riggle, Alan Thicke, Charles Napier, Jonathan Sadowski & Will Ferrell
Cert:16 (ROI) / 15(NI)
Release date: 23 October 2009

The general gist of THE GOODS is that a floundering car dealership (that “looks like a refugee camp for dirty old men”) calls in a group of specialist salesmen –lead by Jeremy Piven as Don “the Goods”  Ready - for an idependence day weekend sale. That’s it. That’s the plot. This movie was devised by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay though so that’s not it. That’s just a pole for them to perform their stripper routine of comedy around.

THE GOODS plays like a really focused 90 minute sketch show. The central plot isn’t important, the writers and actors just use it to connect a series of off beat characters and one liners to. It’s the sub plots that are impotant here.

Ready’s team all have their own issues. Jibby (Ving Rhames) has never been in love, Buck (David Koechner) is the object of an older man’s affections, Babs (Kathryn Hahn) has fallen in lust with a ten year old who looks like a forty year old.

There are also the existing staff at the dealership with their own quirks and foibles. Teddy likes to do things by the book, Blake is an up and coming salesman, Dick is a war veteran/racist, and Ivy (Jordana Spiro) is engaged to a 30 something year old man band member who once opened for O-Town (Ed Helms).

None of these plots are big enough to be their own movie, but when they are amalgamated into Don’s story it works. Don has been living his life at 100 miles per hour trying to escape the memory of a tragedy at a sale in Albuquerque. The sale of this movie forces him to slow down and take a hard look at himself.

The script can be very staccato in places. It doesn’t always flow. A lot of the time one liners are shoved in just because they are funny, and not because they advance the story in any way. The line “we are living in the golden age of lap dancing”girates into your face.

For the most part the characters are extreme characateurs but there is one curve ball. THE GOODS is fairly testosterone driven. Ready’s crew only eat breakfast in strip clubs and its only female member has problems with using sex to sell cars. There is however one curve ball. The Ivy character is a about as well rounded as any female character you will see in a comedy. She’s not just a bag of girlie emotions. She is a 3 dimensional woman with real fears. She does capitulate in the end for the sake of the story but who cares. It’s a comedy. Let’s have a happy ending.

The casting is bang on for the most part. Ready’s crew all fit into their characters without any problems and Ed Helms carries over his The Hangover form brilliantly. The only bit of casting that poses any questions is Jeremy Piven as Don Ready. Not because he does’t fit the bill – this is just a more rock n roll, less jewish version of the character he plays in Entourage. But because Will Ferrell wrote this and you can’t shake the feeling that he would have been better as Ready. He does pop up for a brief cameo, but this feels like a Will Ferrell movie, it should star Will Ferrell.

Still, If you like Will Ferrell movies you should enjoy this thoroughly.