While it’s true that television game shows are still around, they’re nowhere near the craze they once were. As a kid growing up in the 1980s, game shows by the dozens could be found all across daytime TV. “Card Sharks”, “Scrabble”, “Tic-Tac-Dough”, and “Super Password” are just some of the game shows I would sit and watch most weekdays. But one of my personal favorites was “Press Your Luck” hosted by the late Peter Tomarken.
“Press Your Luck” featured three contestants who amassed spins by answering trivia questions. They then used those spins on a randomized gameboard made up of squares featuring cash, prizes, and extra spins. Their main goal was to win big without hitting a Whammy who would take away all their winnings. “Press Your Luck” grew in popularity, but it gained major media attention in 1984 when a former ice cream truck driver from Ohio named Michael Larson outsmarted the game to the tune of $110,237.
In “The Luckiest Man in America”, director Samir Oliveros introduces us to Michael Larson and what became known as the Press Your Luck scandal. Co-written by Oliveros and Maggie Briggs, the film spins the stranger-than-fiction true story into a black comedy of sorts – a move that both helps and hurts the movie. They openly take several wild liberties that manage to add some laughs. But it also takes the story down some roads that never make much sense.
Paul Walter Hauser is terrific as Michael Larson, portrayed as a sheepishly down-on-his-luck ice cream truck driver from Lebanon, Ohio. The film opens up with Michael in Hollywood to audition for his favorite television game show, “Press Your Luck”. He ends up blowing his audition but finds sympathy with the show’s creator and director, Bill Carruthers (David Strathairn). Bill thinks his viewers will love Michael’s story so he books him for the next day’s recording.
Michael spends the last of his money buying a sports jacket at an area thrift store before heading to the studio where the unexpected and improbable happens. After meeting the show’s host, Peter Tomarken (a really good Walton Goggins) and his two fellow contestants (Brian Geraghty and Patti Harrison), Michael settles in to play “Press Your Luck”. And as everyone there soon learns, he has the upper hand.
Basically, Michael had watched the show so much that he had memorized the board’s supposedly random patterns. Before long he’s racking up big winnings which makes Bill Carruthers and his team start to sweat. From there the drama splits time between Michael’s personal chaos, including his underdeveloped situation back home, and the showrunners in the control room who immediately seek to limit the damage.
An immensely overqualified supporting cast fill in the gaps starting with Goggins who slides right into his game show host role. Shamier Anderson plays Bill’s moody casting director who is tasked with learning the truth about Michael. Maisie Williams is a sweet addition playing production assistant Sylvia. Johnny Knoxville pops up briefly as a talk show host in the movie’s strangest scene. And a woefully underused Haley Bennett gets little to do as Michael’s wife, Patricia.
While “The Luckiest Man in America” has its version of Michael Larson, it barely cracks the shell of the real man who is well worth reading about. Not of all of the choices work as intended making this open dramatization far less compelling than the true story. But even if you don’t know the history, there’s still enough here to pique your interest. The cast is top-to-bottom strong, and it’s technically impressive from the slyly deceptive sound design by Andrés Velásquez to Lulú Salgado’s transporting production design. So sit back and soak in this crazy tale. But afterwards, slip over to Wikipedia and check out the even crazier true account.
VERDICT – 3 STARS
Keith & the Movies 