It's the story of a bad day that turns into a five-day blur. Nick gets canned. He comes home, a can of Pabst (one of many to come) in his hand, to find all his belongings on the front lawn. His wife has split. The neighbor across the street, played by Hall, wonders what's up. A teenager rides up on a bike and soon he finds himself in Nick's employ, readying the yard sale that will buy Nick some hang-out time until he determines if he wants to sober up, improve his life, learn a damn thing.
The young actor Christopher Jordan Wallace does fine, quiet work as Nick's protege; Michael Pena plays a local cop who's also Nick's AA sponsor (not a very good one). Rush respects Carver's slim, vinegar-tinged story while creating new characters and new (and somewhat artificial) situations. The results go only so far. Yet already Ferrell has come a long way as a seriocomic screen presence, quite apart from the movies that have ensured he can test his mettle on the occasional small-scale challenge on the order of "Everything Must Go."
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