The Grand

"Poker is a cosmic metaphor," Woody Harrelson explains early in The Grand. "No matter how the cards fall, you think you can still beat them." This apparently is the film's guiding philosophy, for if the advance press is telling the truth, The Grand was largely improvised. As Harrelson ("One-Eyed" Jack Faro) dukes it out with cats like Richard Kind ("Andy") and Werner Herzog ("The German") in a high-stakes poker tournament to save his grandfather's casino from a flaky billionaire (Michael McKean), he is actually playing poker, riffing with the wins and losses as they happen. There is a prosaic redemption at work in the characters' doings. Fred Marsh (Ray Romano) is a tool, a cataclysmically inner-directed stay-at-home dad whose Fantasy Football games are more important to him than his wife Lainie's biggest tournament. If this were any other movie, Lainie (Cheryl Hines) would leave him. In this one, she gives him a hug. It's nice to see a movie that celebrates the humor — not the bravery, but the humor — in playing the hand you're dealt.