The premise of a life after a young lottery winner blew the winnings has great potential for a film. Does Room for Rent reach that potential?
Mitch Baldwin (Mark Little) is a general loser until he wins $3.5 million in the lottery. He funds every crappy idea and lets people take significant advantage of him. Mitch is forced to live with his parents: Betty (American actor Stephnie Weir) and Warren (Mark McKinney).
Warren loses his job and forced into early retirement. The parents threaten to sell the house, which would ruin Mitch's spoiled lifestyle. Mitch convinces his parents to rent out his room. Carl Lemay (American actor Brett Gelman) ends up taking the offer.
Carl is a dream compared to Mitch. Mitch lets his mother do everything for him while Carl helps around the house. Carl pays rent while Mitch doesn't. Carl undermines Mitch's limited life view.
Carl even brings back Mitch's old girlfriend Lindsay (American actor Carla Gallo) into the picture to plan a retirement party for Warren. Huey (Patrick J. Adams) was one of those who took advantage of Mitch and is now a cop.
Room for Rent is definitely not realistic. Cartoonish. Mitch's life is along the lines of Sideshow Bob (The Simpsons) encounters with the rakes. He always run into people who remind him of his failures. He has a lot of failed inventions, such as an umbrella that dries itself one you are inside. "Aren't you the guy who bought a time machine? Did it work?" The answers are Yes and No.
He is awful at apologizing for what he did and excessively passive with those who wronged him.
The introduction is decent and the ending is better than expected. The main critique of the film is very little happens in the middle of the film. You know there will be an explanation at the end (there is) but you could fall asleep in the middle and still follow along.
A pleasant surprise in the film is writer/director Matt Atkinson giving Lindsay more of a fuller female character than one might expect in this type of a film. Lindsay still exists to serve the main character but you get the feeling that Lindsay sticks around to get some closure for what happened a few years back.
The hope is that Atkinson wrote Carl's character with Brett Gelman in mind because the casting and direction of Gelman is worth the watch. White handles the cartoonish, sad sack aspect of Mitch. Patrick J. Adams is having a lot of fun as Huey in a small role. Why do more famous actors take such roles in indie films? The real question is why couldn't all of the characters be as interesting as the very off-beat cop.
Weir and McKinney have as much fun as they can with 1-dimensional characters. Weir, in particular, gets why she is there and does really well in a limited role.
Atkinson gives us a tight cast to tell the story, something your humble reviewer can appreciate.
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Room for Rent does pretty well with its limitations. Easier to recommend with a stronger middle part of the film but the beginning and ending are enough for a decent film. Set your expectations low and you will be reasonably entertained.
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Room for Rent (2017) is available on CBC Gem in Canada and Tubi in the United States.
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