This generation might not know about the game show Press Your Luck or the catchphrase spouted by contestants, “Big bucks, no whammies,” but it played a big part in popularizing the genre. The story of Michael Larson, a man who gamed the system for over $100,000 in 1984, captured the imaginations of people around the U.S. in the 1980s and decades later through the internet. The Luckiest Man in America, directed very well by Samir Oliveros, is a movie that shows a dramatized version of his unprecedented winning streak.
At the beginning, Larson is depicted as an eccentric loser with a heart of gold who is desperate to get on the show. Paul Walter Hauser does a great job in his role as Larson. He has many nervous mannerisms, and he’s clearly up to something besides being an ordinary contestant. Still, despite those red flags, there’s an earnestness about him that makes you root for him.
Walter Goggins also stands out for his performance as the show’s host. It would have been easy for him to be a snarky, antagonistic figure in this story, but his character is sympathetic to Larson, and he becomes one of the voices at the studio who actually supports his win.
When the show starts, Larson is nervous and laser-focused on the game board. Every other contestant who plays is making random choices, but Larson seems to have an ace up his sleeve. The movie does a great job of slowly unraveling the story of Larson’s success on the show, even though the real story is pretty simple. He’s clearly up to something, but you don’t know exactly what.
As his winnings start to eclipse previous records, the producers in the studio start to panic. Larson wins so many times that they suspect him of cheating. People at the studio start investigating his background while the show is still going on. This is where things start to diverge more and more from reality, and the plot turns into a thriller.
The large majority of the movie takes place at the studio on the day of the taping, so all developments have to happen there – which means that the story is more dramatized and faster paced than in reality. It also means that the real aftermath of Larson’s win isn’t shown here, which is surprising because it would have made for a good third act.
The elevated drama does work. Larson has a story as a conman, and he was always out to get rich quick with some sort of scheme -- this being his latest. The film’s angles, sound mixing, and soundtrack do a great job of elevating the tension. You can almost feel Larson’s adrenaline when he starts winning; you feel the tension in the production room when his winning streak becomes worrying. Part of you hopes he continues to win, but the other part knows full well that he’s up to something.
The Luckiest Man in America doesn’t get as much out of the real story as it could have, but it’s an adaptation that adds effective tension and drama. The film wouldn’t have worked as well as it did if it wasn’t for Paul Walter Hauser’s performance, so I hope he gets his flowers for this one.
Author Bio:
Ulises Duenas is a senior writer and film critic at Highbrow Magazine.
For Highbrow Magazine