Director: John Lee Hancock
By Alex Watson
Ray Kroc's ascent to the top of the fast food world with McDonald's is given a surprisingly gentle touch by John Lee Hancock. Making the most of Michael Keaton's great performance, The Founder is a tale of a man wanting to win at all costs. Kroc might not be this year's most sympathetic character, but the brains and sheer balls he demonstrates make us admire him. This tale of rags to riches isn't a completely happy one and his usurping of its originators will be tough to swallow.
In 1954, Ray Kroc (Michael Keaton) is a struggling milkshake machine salesman who is having trouble making money. One day when following up on a large order, he travels to San Bernardino, California where he meets restaurant owners Dick and Mac McDonald (Nick Offerman and John Carroll Lynch). Entranced by their 'speedy system' of delivering orders in 30 seconds and their quality standards, Kroc immediately wants in. Over the years Ray begins to make McDonald's into a household name, all the while alienating the brother's efforts.
The first act of The Founder sets up Kroc's persona nicely as he lives his life on the road. Giving his same cliched 'Chicken and the Egg' speech to a number of uninterested diner owners, he finds himself being continually shown the door. Along the way, he finds himself routinely frustrated by slow service and wrong food being given at a number of drive-in diners. Coming across McDonald's for the first time is like gazing upon an exciting new world. His genuine confusion and amazement as his burger is presented to him within moments will crack a smile, "where do I eat it?" he asks. The brothers are a pair who run their joint like a military operation and are dedicated to quality. Although Ray urges them to franchise, their resistance to change is what sets the rot in this relationship. Ray is a man who is never content with just having enough and his desire to better is what makes us love and hate him in equal measure.
His frustration is what sets about him building an empire. His contract has a slow approval process for anything he suggests and both Dick and Mac's refuse to betray the principles of their beloved restaurant. In the movie's second half he emerges as a ruthless businessman. Realising he will never make the bucks he desires from the brothers, Ray turns to buying land for franchises right under their noses. More than that, he founds another company based on the very company name for whom he has been generating business. Ray looks at himself as the underdog going up against the heavyweights, sad truth is that he fights way dirtier than necessary. Soon he starts enacting his own changes while similar copying the same service standards of the brothers. Dick fumes when he nationally issues powdered milkshakes to all restaurants instead of using ice cream. Ray's ideas are innovative and his success begins to make him believe he is untouchable.
John Lee Hancock treads a fine line with his portrayal of Hancock, presented as a lovable loser in the beginning soon his charm begins to blur the lines. By the movie's climax, we see a cunning and almost psychotic money maker. His dedication comes at the cost his marriage to wife Ethel (a barely used Laura Dern) and he soon catches the eye of singer Joan Smith (Linda Cardellini). In capitalist America, this tale of gaining market ground and branding will ring painfully true. Treating McDonald's like his own personal baby, Ray indeed builds this company from the ground up but only by breaking what he swore to uphold. Dick and Mac's short-sighted approach doesn't make them come off as complete victims. Stubborn to the point of being unreasonable and refusing nationwide exposure to due fear of not controlling their products, it is little wonder Ray goes against them.
Michael Keaton's fine form continues with a bold performance as Ray Kroc. Channelling his own will to dominate along with his everyman charm, this is a winning turn. Since Birdman, Keaton is the process of a big revival and Hancock's movie just proves further how is able to anchor a big movie. Nick Offerman and John Carroll Lynch also make fine supporting fodder to Keaton. Offerman's almost anal retentive presentation of Dick McDonald makes for perfect resistance to change. Carroll Lynch's turn is perhaps the more devastating as the gentler of the two brothers as the stress mounts from Kroc's offensive campaign. Laura Dern sadly is stranded in a nothing role which gives her nothing to work with. One of the most underrated actresses around, she really deserved a better part.
The Founder is a movie that reminds us that the cost of doing business sometimes involves being underhanded to get ahead.
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