Starring: Bryan Cranston, Annette Bening, Rainn Wilson, Anna Camp, Michael McKean, Larry Wilmore, Jake McDorman, Uly Schlesinger, Ann Harada
OUR RATING: ★★★½
Story:
Paramount+ comedy drama directed by David Frankel. Jerry and Marge Go Large (2022) is inspired by the true story of retiree Jerry Selbee (Bryan Cranston), who discovers a mathematical loophole in the Massachusetts lottery, and with the help of his wife Marge (Annette Bening), wins millions and uses the money to revive their small Michigan town.
Our Favorite Quotes:
'Just because things didn't work out the way you wanted, doesn't mean they won't. Good luck happens, same as bad.' - Marge (Jerry and Marge Go Large) Share on X
Best Quotes
Bill: These are my friends, Jerry and Marge Selbee. They live in Evart, Michigan. It’s a small town that’s not exactly in its prime. Though, to be honest, neither are Jerry and Marge. Today, they’re on their way to buy lottery tickets. Lots and lots of lottery tickets. But they’re not hoping to get lucky. You see, they don’t need luck. But this story doesn’t start there. It starts with Jerry, getting up before dawn, just like he has every day for forty-two years, going to work at the Corn Flakes factory, for what he fears will be the last time.
Kellogg’s Boss: Jerry, you don’t have to work so hard. You’re retiring.
Jerry: Well, yeah. But I don’t have to be. I know my line is shutting down. But, you know, I have a thing with numbers.
Kellogg’s Boss: Come on. You’ve served your time. These are your golden years.
Howard: Too Jerry. Not everybody can pull off forty-two years without getting fired.
Jerry: Every system can use an improvement.
Jerry: How do you make a living with only six clients?
Steve: I don’t. I just became an online travel agent.
Steve: Why do you always have to understand the reasoning behind everything?
Jerry: Oh, well, it’s the only way I can make sense of things.
Steve: How’s the boat?
Jerry: Water’s still too cold.
Steve: You don’t get in the water. That’s the point of the boat.
Jerry: How’s my account?
Steve: Speaking of cold. Two percent gains, which doesn’t sound like much, because it isn’t. Look, you got to be more aggressive. If you let me put that in stocks, I could probably get you ten percent. That would double your money in only…
Jerry: Seven point two seven years.
Steve: [referring to his calculator] Literally the only time I was going to get to use that today.
Jerry: It’s not gambling.
Steve: The lottery?
Jerry: Yep. There’s a way to win every time.
Steve: Are you having a stroke?
Jerry: There’s a loophole they didn’t see, and it’s right here in the math.
Steve: I don’t know what this says. Looks like the numbers a crazy man drew on his cell wall.
Jerry: It means that on the roll down weeks, you’re guaranteed to win.
Steve: That can’t be true.
Jerry: Why not?
Steve: Because it’s the lottery, Jerry. There’s a building of people in Detroit whose job it is to know how the numbers work. And they do.
Jerry: I cannot believe you are my accountant.
Steve: Part-time accountant. Full-time online travel agent.
Marge: You’re going to have to tell me what’s going on. I’m too old to wait it out.
Jerry: I missed my chance. I did everything I was supposed to do. Everything I had to do. Now it’s too late to do anything else.
Marge: Oh, your life isn’t over.
Jerry: Everybody seems to think it is.
Marge: Just because things didn’t work out the way you wanted, doesn’t mean they won’t. Good luck happens, same as bad. What?
Jerry: Good luck, it happens same as bad?
Marge: Yeah. It’s just math. What?
Jerry: Oh, man. What a dummy. Not you. Me. You’re a genius.
Steve: I mean, it’s like a regular travel agent, but it’s online, so people can act like animals when something doesn’t work out.
'It's Newton's law. If you push against something, it's going to push back.' - Jerry (Jerry and Marge Go Large) Share on X
Jerry: But the math works. Drive for two hours, get a free burger. Offsets the cost of gas.
Dawn: I don’t eat meat, Dad.
Jerry: Oh, right. I’ll get the chicken.
Dawn: No, that’s still meat!
Dawn: [referring to Jerry] Is he okay?
Marge: He just doesn’t know the formula for “I miss you”.
Jerry: I’m playing the lottery, and I’m winning. I figured out the math, and I won fifteen thousand dollars. It’s stuffed inside the Frosted Mini-Wheats box.
Marge: Wow. I gave twenty dollars to Shirley’s lottery pool. I guess it’s not such a big deal now.
Jerry: I had to try it. I found this flaw in the game, and I had to find out if I was right.
Marge: Well, why didn’t you just tell me?
Jerry: I felt silly. We barely have enough money to retire on as it is. And this is no time to risk it.
Marge: Yes, it is.
Jerry: What?
Marge: It’s time to risk it. Because right now we’re losing something that matters even more.
Marge: I’ve waited forty years for it to be just us, and so far, we kind of suck at it.
Jerry: We have Jeopardy.
Marge: Oh, that’s not a thing. Jerry! I want to have fun! I want to have fun. Let’s be a little stupid. Huh? We got married when we were seventeen, so we know how to do it.
Jerry: Well, that’s true.
Marge: [to Jerry] We need something for us. I didn’t think it would be playing the lottery, but I’d rob a bank if it gave us something to talk about.
Jerry: The math works. You can see that. You’re an accountant.
Steve: Yeah. I mean, it looks right.
Marge: And Massachusetts isn’t that far.
Jerry: No, it’s only about a ten hour drive, if our truck doesn’t break down.
Marge: If it does, we’ll get a ride.
Steve: From whom?
Marge: Truckers.
Jerry: Yeah, they’re always looking for company.
Steve: To murder.
Marge: We’ll jump out if it gets weird.
Jerry: And they won’t even know that we have a duffle bag full of cash.
Marge: Yeah, we’ll keep that zipped up.
Jerry: Feels like we really are robbing a bank.
Marge: No. It’s going to be more fun.
Bill: How can I help you?
Jerry: We’d like to buy eight thousand WinFall tickets.
Bill: [turns to the small kid] I’m going to get you first.
Bill: Eight thousand WinFall tickets is like twenty-nine thousand dollars.
Jerry: No. Sixteen thousand.
Bill: Sixteen thousand dollars.
Jerry: And that is how much we brought.
Bill: Well, the machine prints a thousand tickets an hour, so you’ll be here all day. And let me tell you from experience, being here all day sucks. Because I’m here all day.
'Kiss a few frogs, then when you find your prince, you'll realize that the frogs are better, because they make you laugh.' - Marge (Jerry and Marge Go Large) Share on X
Jerry: Sorry, the motel’s not so great.
Marge: The Pick and Shovel. Perfect name. Because it’s what you need to dig a grave.
Jerry: Reminds me of our wedding night. My dad gave me enough money to take you to the prom. But then I thought, “Heck, the prom ends at midnight. But a marriage, that lasts forever. And it’s twenty bucks cheaper.”
Marge: Which you spent on a Days Inn.
Jerry: On our honeymoon. Yeah.
Marge: Well, I’m glad we’re being crazy. I’d sleep in the car if I had to.
Jerry: Well, you may have to.
Marge: Did you ever think maybe the world wasn’t passing you by? Maybe you were meant to be here. To work in the factory, and to care about all these people the way you do, because the day would come when you could help them.
Jerry: What do you mean?
Marge: Well, you said the more we bet, the better the odds.
Jerry: I did say that.
Steve: So you want to start a corporation?
Jerry: Bring in the whole town. If we sell shares, we’ll have more capital to invest.
Marge: Go big or go home.
Jerry: Then we’ll split the profits with the shareholders.
Marge: Everybody rides.
Steve: Will you stop talking like that?
Marge: Sorry. I’m just really into it.
Jerry: She’s really into it. Because she knows it’ll work.
Marge: House always wins.
Steve: Stop it!
Steve: You really think people will come in on this?
Jerry: Yep. You did.
Steve: Yeah, but I’m a depressed widower with nothing to live for.
Jerry: Your mother and I are going into business.
Dawn: Are you selling her toffee or something?
Jerry: No. We’re going to play the lottery.
Jerry: We are betting forty thousand.
Bill: You guys drug dealers?
Marge: No. We’re professional lottery players.
Bill: I don’t think that’s a thing.
Marge: It is now.
'Your brain tells you that you see what other's don't. But in the end, you're just seeing less.' - Jerry (Jerry and Marge Go Large) Share on X
Bill: Hey, I got two more shareholders. One of them’s got to rob his parents house real quick, but he’s definitely in.
Tyler: [to the students] The first thing you learn at Harvard is that you’re here for your future. Right? Second thing you learn is that’s all bulls**t. There is no future. There is just now waiting for you to take it. I found a flaw in the lottery. Okay? A way to beat the game every time, because nobody at the lottery figured out what I did. But it only works if you can bet big. So, tell your parents that you have new lab fees, or need books, or got an STD. Whatever it takes, because if we pull this off, then we are legends!
Howard: We’re bringing back the jazz festival.
Shirley: The best music is the music you make up as you go along.
Howard: Ah, I’m just sad we couldn’t have had it when Prince was around.
Shirley: He wouldn’t have come, Howard.
Howard: We’ll never know.
Trailer: