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The Founder poster

CAST
MICHAEL KEATON
LINDA CARDELLINI
LAURA DERN
JOHN CARROLL LYNCH
B.J. NOVAK
NICK OFFERMAN
PATRICK WILSON

WRITTEN BY
ROBERT D. SIEGEL

PRODUCED BY
DON HANDFIELD
JEREMY RENNER
AARON RYDER

DIRECTED BY
JOHN LEE HANCOCK

GENRE
BIOGRAPHY
DRAMA
HISTORY

RATED
AUS:M
UK:12A
USA:PG-13

RUNNING TIME
115 MIN

THE FOUNDER (2016)

An infectiously entertaining performance from Michael Keaton highlights a true-life story about business at its most ruthless and entrepreneurship at its most pure in The Founder.

Every success story has a beginning, a blue-print which is tested and tinkered and tested again until satisfaction is met. Well, maybe not so much “satisfaction” in a final sense. Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Steve Jobs… all have gone back to the drawing board to do better, think bigger, make their mark even more than the last time. Ray Kroc is a man who shares their spirit, but not much in the way of an original idea. See, Kroc’s claim to fame was taking a popular local hamburger joint and franchising it into a symbol of American excellence: fast, efficient, one of a kind. That hamburger joint? McDonalds.

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So how exactly did a corporation with annual revenues of over $25 billion and over 34,000 restaurants worldwide come to be? The Founder, the latest film from director John Lee Hancock (The Blind Side) is as entertaining and fat-free a biopic as one can get on the subject, the kind of film that is tailor made for a movie star such as Michael Keaton who in his continued comeback dominance delivers one of his very best performances as Kroc, a charismatic portrait of a character whose personable, winning nature is equalled by his stubbornness and ruthless pursuit for power.

Indeed, the script by Robert D. Siegel (The Wrestler) efficiently chronicles the how’s, what’s, and who’s of this fascinating story of big goals and big business, while also delving into what made Kroc tick with his endless quest to own, redefine and create an empire out of a fast food joint (correction, “the” fast food joint). Potential and opportunity are the things that drove him, as do others who share the same long-term business goals and lust for success. Those who don’t, such as Kroc’s content wife Ethel (Laura Dern), and McDonald’s creator brothers Dick (Nick Offerman) and Mac (John Carroll Lynch) McDonald, , are left on the wayside.

In many ways, Kroc is an unlikeable character, yet his tenacity and drive as portrayed by Keaton in all of his charming best, also makes him a man worth rooting for. Innovators and leaders by their nature are egomaniacal and stubborn in their drive. Yet they also put themselves out there to fail, just as much as too succeed. The Founder entertainingly yet potently portrays the trials of a man willing to lose it all, in order to gain the world.

****

 

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