'Jerry & Marge Go Large' review: Pleasant, but dull

WHAT IT'S ABOUT In 2003, Marge (Annette Bening) and Jerry Selbee (Bryan Cranston) are recently retired and trying to figure out the "what next" part of their life, when Jerry notices a lottery ticket for Winfall. Checking the small print on its back, he quickly figures out a loophole which — if exploited — would guarantee winnings. He and Marge then get together family (Jake McDorman plays their son) and friends (Michael McKean, Larry Wilmore) in their small Michigan town to launch a company that has the sole purpose of playing Winfall. When Michigan ends the game, Marge amd Jerry travel to Massachusetts to play. The company winnings ($26 million over nearly a decade) is used to spruce up their town and put the grandkids through college. 

MY SAY America got its first extended look at Marge and Jerry Selbee of Evart, Mich. during a "60 Minutes" profile in early 2019. High school sweethearts married 50-something years who ran the local five-and-dime and raised a family there, they seemed so kind and ordinary as to beggar description, other than "Midwestern Nice." Marge made pie for the producers, while Jerry sat on the porch swing, watching the world (or at least the birds) go by. The idea was to contrast those big earnings with that modesty along with some other rock-solid heartland values — hard work, selflessness and a fundamental decency. 

Surprisingly or not, "Jerry & Marge Go Large" doesn't add many other facets, or revelations either. There is a side story about a Harvard (MIT in real life) brat who tries to scuttle their Winfall windfall and which plays like some sort of Mark Zuckerberg revenge fantasy. (Who knows how much of it is true but it is at least satisfying.) Otherwise, this movie is like a long — at stretches prolonged — edition of "A Prairie Home Companion," or "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet." Gentle and kindhearted — the anti-Bonnie-and-Clyde, if you will — Jerry and Marge just can't seem to be anyone else, even with Cranston and Bening playing them. 

The movie is a timely reminder that decent people with good intentions can still prevail in a world where those with contrary impulses seem to be rewarded far too often. But their nice movie can also be dull at times — numbingly dull, invidiously dull, dull to the point of utter distraction in those scattered moments. You want Jerry to pick up the pace, or at least punch that entitled Harvard twerp. You wish Marge would throw a pie instead of bake one.

But would Ozzie go ballistic? Would Harriet get in a food fight? Never, and neither do Marge and Jerry. They're steady, rock-ribbed, respectable citizens who enjoy nothing more than counting Winfall tickets, first by the thousands, then by the millions.   For them, it was never about the money anyway, but about the arithmetic. There may be an interesting idea there. Best of luck finding it under this mountain of lotto tickets.

BOTTOM LINE Pleasant movie with the dramatic sizzle of a Hallmark greeting card.