Penn Raises The Stakes on Comedy

With all of the famous (and almost famous) faces in Zak Penn's film "The Grand," which opens Friday at City Cinemas Village East, it's a bit hard to distinguish his improvisational documentary from an average evening on the celebrity poker circuit (former "American Pie" hottie and poker fanatic Shannon Elizabeth even makes a cameo). But Mr. Penn has gathered a well-qualified crew of familiar faces to populate his film, which is helped dramatically by a real-life poker game that decides the final plot elements.

Mr. Penn, a recognized screenwriter in Hollywood responsible for penning such scripts as "PCU," "X2," and "Last Action Hero," as well as the forthcoming "The Incredible Hulk," actually wrote little of his 2004 improvisational "hoax" documentary, "Incident at Loch Ness," starring Werner Herzog, and he follows a similar, improvisation-heavy pattern here. He compiled a "scriptment" with co-writer Matt Bierman that established basic plot elements and then let the actors loose with their characters.

Though "The Grand" was initially conceived as a Ben Affleck film, Mr. Penn seems to have opted for improv talent above poker skills — meaning Mr. Affleck does not appear. Instead, an impressive cast, led by Woody Harrelson, populates the film. Mr. Harrelson plays One-Eyed Jack Farrow, an equal-opportunity addict who has squandered his fortune and stands to lose his family business, a Las Vegas casino named the Golden Nugget.

Determined to keep billionaire Steve Lavisch's (Michael McKean) diabolically corporate hands off his father's casino, Jack leaves rehab to enter the World Series of Poker and capture the $10 million prize to keep the Nugget alive. He is joined in pursuit of that prize by an able and conniving cast that includes Cheryl Hines's cheerfully cutthroat female champion, Lainie Schwartzman; David Cross as her passive-aggressive brother, Larry; Chris Parnell's Asperger's syndrome-afflicted poker fiend, Harold Melvin; Richard Kind's Internet savant, Andy Andy; Dennis Farina's aging mobster, Deuce Fairbanks, and Werner Herzog's German misanthrope, surprisingly named "the German."

Everyone in the cast makes the most of their roles, but Ms. Hines, surrounded by wimpy men — including Ray Romano, looking strangely at ease as her spineless househusband and Gabe Kaplan as her competitively cheap father — is intrinsically watchable. There is also something painfully funny about watching the normally somber Mr. Herzog in a comedic role.

Although the pacing at times feels like an overextended Saturday Night Live sketch, the cast pulls out amazing laugh lines throughout. "The Grand" gets a good deal of mileage out of the absurd architecture that populates Las Vegas, the inane rituals that poker players employ, and the general silliness that abounds when large sums of money are on the table. Mixing Christopher Guest improv with Larry David sarcasm, the cast members deliver on the varied tasks expected of them — including the poker skills expected of players at this table.

Mr. Penn has put his money where his mouth is and left the outcome of the final game up to the actors playing at the table. The culmination of the tournament and the film is a table populated with all of the film's major players. The improvisational element of the game adds to the drama of the tournament and brings rewarding twists to a movie that could have easily ridden its basic plot elements to trite results. As the actors become increasingly wrapped up in the film's final hands, the natural tension adds a great chemistry to the final sequences.

Mr. Penn has made a living in Hollywood by writing large-scale blockbusters, but his laissez-faire approach to comedy has surprising rewards. By setting up talented actors and letting them run with their own jokes, Mr. Penn has left room in "The Grand" for outcomes that grip both the audience and the on-screen players. Hearing a joke the first time it's told is a luxury that movie audiences aren't usually afforded. And by leaving the conclusion of the film at the mercy of the final game, Mr. Penn makes a bet that pays off tenfold.

mkeane@nysun.com