A corruption narrative. The best description I have heard for this movie, and one which I wish I could take credit for but can't, is that it is like There Will Be Blood with french-fries. The Founder finds drama in the birth of one of the most ubiquitous of American corporate empires. It tales the story of the at first hopeful partnership between Ray Kroc (Michael Keaton) an ambitious but mediocre purveyor of milkshake multi mixers, and New Hampshire born brothers Richard James "Dick" McDonald (Nick Offerman) and Maurice James "Mac" McDonald (John Carroll Lynch) who essentially invented fast food at their small San Bernardino, California burger joint. Though the partnership begins with promise in the mid 1950's, within the next decade the brothers and Kroc despise each other, and in the end Kroc really screws them over.
The best thing about the movie is the compelling performances in the principle three roles, particularly Keaton as Kroc, though all three impress as very unique, very individual, very believable people. Kroc had been seemingly on the edge of failure his whole life, and when he saw the true potential of the McDonald Brothers business model, he just had to have it. As portrayed here it really changed him, and though at the beginning of the film he wasn't a sterling specimen of a man, a kind of wannabe hustler, by the end pride and megalomania have set in big time.
The film is also pretty rich in its supporting players, including Laura Dern as Kroc's first wife, Linda Cardellini (as the woman who would become his third), Patrick Wilson, and B.J. Novak. I was never bored in this movie, its almost funny that this story could prove as gripping as it did, and being Machiavellian about burgers is in itself funny. Directed by John Lee Hancock, who also did Saving Mr. Banks, The Blind Side, and The Rookie, he certainly excels in these kind of off kilter success stories. ****
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