Movie Review: “The Founder”

Dir: John Lee Hancock Writer: Robert Siegel

★★★

By Keith Shapiro

Quality vs Quantity, the age old American dilemma. After a life of rejection and failure, Ray Kroc (Michael Keaton) knows where he stands. Listening to self-help records while sipping copious amounts of Canadian Club, Ray understands the power of unshakeable persistence. If only he could get those damn McDonald brothers to stop being beatniks and embrace capitalism, remember fortune favors the bold!

“The Founder” tells the story of the early days of the behemoth McDonald’s Corporation in a muted, but effective style. It was said the Coen brothers were on board to direct Robert Siegel’s (The Wrestler, Big Fan) subtle, but pointed script and it could have used some of their magic. John Lee Hancock directs with a soft touch that allows for some big moments to stand out but fails to capture some of the natural energy of the story and misses opportunities to have cinematic fun. Fortunately, Michael Keaton is his usual excellent self and the tension that is at the heart of the narrative tightens its grip as the film moves forward. “Mac” and Dick McDonald (Nick Offerman) are portrayed as burger artisans, modern inventors who truly care about quality and efficiency in the brave new world of the 1950s. Offerman stands out as the stoic and skeptical Dick, who knows Kroc is the fox in the henhouse of a business he painstakingly built, but can’t stop the momentum as the dollars roll in. Compounding Ray’s burning frustration, the McDonald brothers, who seem strangely married to each other, struggle to relinquish any bit of control over their beloved business. From years of struggle, Kroc knows when you have a good thing you have to get all you can out of it. Laura Dern is also moving as Ray’s long suffering wife Ethel who becomes another victim of his overwhelming ambition.

If you enjoy true life history/bio films like Big Eyes, Ed Wood, The Social Network or Steve Jobs there’s a lot to like in “The Founder”. With a little more directorial flair it could’ve been on the next level but it’s an excellent story, more relevant than ever, well told.