Jerry and Marge Go Large

A retired Michigan couple grossed nearly $27 million over nine years after discovering a lottery loophole.

In the interim, they limited lottery retailers to $5,000 in ticket sales per day. Their goal was never to live a lavish lifestyle but instead put their money to practical uses, such as helping their six kids, 14 grandkids, and 10 great-grandchildren pay for their education. After retiring from his job at a Kellogg’s cereal factory and selling a convenience store that he later operated, Jerry discovered a new Michigan lottery game called “Winfall” in 2003. They would spend up to 10 hours per day for 10 days at a time printing and sorting them. Inspired by the true story of Jerry and Marge Selbee, Paramount+’s Jerry & Marge Go Large centers on a retired small-town Michigan couple who won millions after discovering a — completely legal — mathematical lottery loophole. They eventually set up a corporation called GS Investment Strategies LLC, keeping detailed records of their winnings and inviting a small circle of friends to join them.

The new movie “Jerry and Marge Go Large” tells the true story of a Michigan couple who used a lottery loophole to win millions of dollars.

The Selbees weren’t doing anything illegal. In doing so, he won more than he lost on tickets. That loophole netted the couple around $27 million over nine years.

Judi Dench and Steve Coogan star in a terrifically moving true story, while Bryan Cranston and Annette Bening play a couple who find a loophole in the ...

He has recently retired after 42 years in admin at a cornflake factory and is dreading the prospect of his “golden years” when he discovers a loophole in a lottery game that means he can win big … very big. Masaharu Fukuyama’s Ryota is a city architect whose drive to succeed at work means he neglects his wife Midori (Machiko Ono) and young son Keita. Then they discover Keita was swapped at birth with Ryusei, eldest son of small-town shopworkers Yudai (Lily Franky) and Yukari (Yōko Maki). The difference between the easygoing, playful Yudai and the pushy, emotionally repressed Ryota is clear as the four parents negotiate their new reality – some with more compassion than others. As with Citizen Kane, just because John Ford’s 1956 western is forever being rolled out as one of the greatest films ever doesn’t mean it isn’t. It’s also John Wayne’s finest hour – he plays Ethan Edwards, a Confederate veteran brutalised by war who rediscovers his humanity and sense of community in his obsessive search for a niece abducted by Comanche raiders. Ron Clements and John Musker’s animation weaves the art, music and myths of Polynesia into an entertaining coming-of-age drama/eco-parable/origin story for the region’s seafaring people. SW He plays former BBC journalist and spin doctor Martin Sixsmith, who escapes work woes by taking up the case of Philomena Lee (Judi Dench). Fifty years earlier, she was an unmarried teenage mother stuck in a Catholic convent laundry in Ireland when her son was sold for adoption – against her wishes.

Writer Brad Copeland and director David Frankel simply don't trust Jerry and Marge.

Cranston and Bening add believability to the first act of “Jerry & Marge Go Large,” finding truth in the set-up of people forced into new life patterns. I wanted to just hang out with the Jerry and Marge of the first act, two people trying to figure out what’s next in life, before the movie gave up on subtlety for TV movie plotting. However, writer Brad Copeland and director David Frankel simply don’t trust Jerry and Marge. They clutter their sweet tale with unnecessary enemies in the form of a clan of Harvard rich kids who discover the same loophole, and the film ends up getting less interesting as it lopes to a rather bland finale.

Bryan Cranston and Annette Bening bring sentimentality to the otherwise plain Jerry & Marge Go Large, a story about a lottery scheme and a new lease on ...

Despite the resemblance of this premise to right-wing reactionary fearmongering, Jerry & Marge maintains a sense of kindness and compassion, kept afloat by the prowess of its incredible lead performers. Not only is it a capitalism backdoor that gives them the chance to pour money into their flailing township, but it grants them a sense of purpose, in defiance of their worth being dictated by a corporate age of retirement. In a wholesome mirror to Cranston’s ruthless role on Breaking Bad, the lottery scheme gives Jerry a renewed sense of purpose, just when it felt like control was slipping from his grasp; at one point, he hides his initial winnings from Marge as if he were a secret agent. Based on the true story of Jerry and Marge Selbee — the retirees who gamed the Michigan Lottery system in the early-mid 2000s — Jerry & Marge Go Large is the kind of decent, inoffensive film that’s hard to dislike, even if it leaves you with little to love. He hides his little gamble from Marge at first (though he would be sure to remind you that it isn’t a gamble at all!), but Jerry is a simple, small-town Midwesterner, and lying isn’t his forte. Jerry and Marge aren’t the only ones who’ve figured out the loophole, and a snotty Harvard student, Tyler (Uly Schlesinger), is about to make things personal.

Starring Bryan Cranston and Annette Bening, 'Jerry and Marge Go Large,' is a charming movie perfect for late-night streaming date night.

Cranston and Bening share a sweet, low-key chemistry, and they make you root for Jerry and Marge. Thoms, who co-starred in Frankel’s The Devil Wears Prada, does a nice job of portraying the journalist; she aims to get the truth out there, but thankfully isn’t made to be the villain of the piece. And because you’ve got Bryan Cranston going from zero to hero, if you squint, Jerry & Marge Go Large is totally the feel-good Breaking Bad. Here’s why we loved this unexpected new gem, and why we expect it might become the sleeper-hit for couples to watch when they’re looking for something uplifting and smart. And then there’s Rainn Wilson and Larry Wilmore. Wilson generates laughs as a quirky convenience store clerk who becomes integral to the Selbees’ ever-evolving ticket-buying operation, while Wilmore pretty much steals the show as the couples’ multitasking, widower accountant, who has a bemused take on their finances, their unlikely way of securing a nest egg, and how it all rubs off on him and his own situation. You can bank on this: Jerry & Marge Go Large is a fun, smart, heartfelt, and even intermittently romantic movie that’s perfect for at-home date-night streaming. It’s an easygoing movie with no superheroes, car chases, explosions, or fancy special effects, and it’s a bit on the pokey side – though not boring. And the town itself benefited, too, with stores reopening, a park fixed up, and a local jazz festival coming alive again.

A broad, fact-based comedy about a couple who game the lottery has flashes of vicarious fun but relies too heavily on sitcom beats.

Jerry and Marge are cashing in and, ultimately, so are they. The couple end up facing off against a bratty Harvard student who also figures out the lottery’s blind spot and while it’s satisfying to rag on an entitled rich kid, the conflict is far too minor to register. There’s a whiff of the plane movie emanating from ho-hum Paramount+ comedy Jerry and Marge Go Large, an acceptable half-awake diversion when one has run out of other, better options in the sky but something that’s a little harder to justify on the ground.

I'm going to try to give this film a good review, because to not do so would be Mean. And this movie is very Nice. Its protagonists are Nice.

One day, Jerry realizes that a new lottery game Winfall has the potential to make him and his wife a lot of money based on the odds. From here, Jerry and Marge (Annette Benning) recruit more and more people from their small Michigan town to bet money, realizing there is more money to be made that way and, as the film wants us to see, more ways to help those around them. You’ll rub your partner’s knuckles lovingly as Annette Benning and Bryan Cranston do an admittedly wonderful job at portraying an older couple reigniting the sparks of their passion. “I need a headline.” In a way, Jerry & Marge Go Large seems to argue for the usefulness of the puff piece. A tertiary plot involves Boston Globe reporter Maya Jordan (Tracie Thoms) figuring out what’s going on with the consistent wins by Jerry and the Harvard group. In the film, Jerry (Bryan Cranston) is a recent retiree who doesn’t know what to do with himself. Here, any problems caused over the years by his distant personality are solved with some wacky-but-legal lottery shenanigans and tossing the ol’ pigskin with his adult son. Here’s the part where he tells the town it’s over. Because the lottery board doesn’t seem to mind (they’re still making a profit), the film’s antagonist comes in the form of Harvard snob Tyler Langford (Uly Schlesinger), someone who also realizes the flaw in the system but wants to push Marge and Jerry out so he and his friends can win a bigger share of the lottery money. Between the acoustic guitar score, the precocious granddaughter character that calls Jerry “Pop-Pop,” and narration by Rainn Wilson about how great Jerry and Marge were, this movie wears its occasionally saccharine heart on its sleeve. The movie, Jerry & Marge Go Large, is based on the true story of Gerald “Jerry” Selbee and his wife Marge who won millions of dollars playing a loophole in various state lotteries. It’s not that this movie is bad.

Even Bryan Cranston and Annette Bening can't save this superficial take on a far more interesting true story.

He brought to life a gripping story that revealed so much about the people at the center of it as well as the world they were living in. It is the first of many ways that the film offers an easy enemy, including a borderline dishonest portrayal of a different reporter, to point at rather than the more complicated reality. This remains paramount as, at the end of the day, specificity is what gives life to a story. It is a film that conveys its story via expositional dialogue as opposed to creating a rich visual narrative. In Jerry & Marge Go Large, the truth is but a light suggestion as it takes a revealing story that had a lot of teeth only to turn it into a feel-good film that strips away all the nuances that made it so fascinating. Editor's Note: The following contains Jerry & Marge Go Large spoilers.Whenever a film proclaims to be based on a true story, it is always an open question about how genuine of a statement that will actually turn out to be.

Larry Wilmore and Annette Bening told Newsweek why "Jerry & Marge Go Large," now on Paramount+, isn't your normal Hollywood movie.

And that is a reflection of the values of those in that part of the world." And it's kind of inspirational that he said that to me." "And I was like, 'What are you talking about?' He goes, I think you need to do more of this. It's so small that everybody knows when somebody has a baby, or when there's a death in the family, when somebody gets a promotion, or in this case, when the whole town is not doing so well." "With a story like this though, the focus is on something so simple," Wilmore said, referencing Jerry & Marge Go Large. It dramatizes the true events behind Jerry Selbee, a retired math whiz who is the first to spot the discrepancy in his local lottery's rule. He stars alongside Bryan Cranston and Annette Bening in Jerry & Marge Go Large, which is based on the true story of a couple who found a mathematical loophole in the Michigan lottery, and exploited it to benefit their hometown.

It's kind of odd that almost every movie about gambling is actually pretty good, if not great. Owning Mahoney, Hard Eight, Croupier, Maverick, Casino, ...

Jake Monaco's musical score is really unfortunate - Monaco is very talented and great for providing non-stop, light music for kids movies such as A Cinderella Story: If the Shoe Fits, and he can provide some of the best sentimental schmaltz for movies that need it (Think Like a Dog, A Cinderella Story: Christmas Wish), but his airy, sappy score actually makes Jerry and Marge Go Large worse. That's what makes Jerry and Marge Go Large different from a lot of these other stories, and super-saccharine as a result — it's a feel-good twist on the type of brilliant scheming seen in docuseries like McMillions. Nobody goes to jail, nobody's life is ruined, and a happy, folksy town is saved. However, this complete absence of stakes, major conflict, and any real consequences makes Jerry and Marge Go Large completely lacking in suspense or drama (give or take an obnoxious Harvard dweeb with no personality other than 'spoiled rich kid,' who also tries to game the lottery). This all leaves the viewer stuffed on good cheer but without any substance. Unfortunately, Jerry and Marge Go Large might be the exception to the rule. Jerry and Marge Go Large is based on an excellent and lengthy article written by Jason Fagone for The Huffington Post, which recounts the wild true story of a pair of sexagenarians who took the (mostly Massachusetts) lottery system for $27 million over the course of nine years thanks to some good math. He mostly does the same with Jerry and Marge Go Large, which features Bryan Cranston and Annette Bening as an elderly couple staring down the gray-haired barrel of retirement with a bit of existential ennui.