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The Grand

• Directed by Zak Penn
• Written by Matt Bierman and Zak Penn
• Starring Woody Harrelson, David Cross, Dennis Farina, Cheryl Hines and Richard Kind
• Classification: 14A
• Rating:

From The Cincinnati Kid to Rounders, poker has played a high-stakes role in movie lore. But the "card flick" has usually been a standard western, drama or crime deal — that is, until a pack of mostly veteran comic actors tried their hand at improvising, Christopher Guest-style, in the highly amusing The Grand.

Known for writing blockbusters such as X-Men II, director Zak Penn honed his mockumentary chops while co-directing the film-within-a-film-within-a-film Incident at Loch Ness (2004), which follows a documentary crew following German art-film director Werner Herzog, who is making a documentary about the famed monster. In The Grand, Penn casts Herzog as the German, a rabbit-stroking sociopath and one of six professional players who land at the final table in the world's second most famous high-stakes tournament, with a winner-take-all prize of $10-million.

The broadcast of the tournament, complete with inane commentary, gives the film its recognizable forward momentum while poking fun at pro poker's rise as a popular TV "sport." Following Guest's proven winning strategy from such films as Best in Show and A Mighty Wind, each character is revealed in his or her natural habitat as the filmmaker dips into their back stories with fake archival material.

Penn created what he calls a "scriptment" (mix of screenplay and notes) for the actors to use as a base to create their characters, and the actors are, according to the press notes, really playing poker, which no doubt adds to the fake reality (if you know what I mean).

Like real documentaries, mockumentary comedies succeed or fail on the appeal and depth of the characters. Luckily, The Grand is loaded with winners. Woody Harrelson returns to comedy, channelling the bad boy within as One Eyed Jack Faro, a not-quite-recovering addict and the only player with real personal stakes at risk; the casino bequeathed to him by his late grandfather is destined for the wrecking ball if he can't pay back a debt.

Then there are the Schwartzmans, chip-on-his-shoulder brother Larry ( Mr. Show's David Cross) and mother-of-five sister Lainie ( Curb Your Enthusiasm's Cheryl Hines), whose doting father (Gabe Kaplan, a.k.a. Mr. Kotter) still plays favourites. Ray Romano does a hilarious turn as Lainie's husband Fred, a stay-at-home dad. Veteran tough guy Dennis Farina is cast to type as Deuce Fairbanks, offering some history of the card circuit, while mockumentary legend Michael McKean ( Spinal Tap et al.) almost steals the show as a brutal developer with insane hotel ideas and no short-term memory.

No game would be complete without a couple of oddballs. Saturday Night Live's Chris Parnell plays Harold Melvin, a genius with Asperger's syndrome who lives with his shrill mother ( Seinfeld's Estelle Harris) and sips "brain juice" at the table. And the wild card, so to speak, is Andy Andrews (Richard Kind), a happy-go-lucky high-school teacher who has only played poker online.

The final high-stakes game was played as a real game (the DVD will feature lots of alternate scenes) and you'll find yourself guessing who will get the $10-million as the players leave the table one by one. In the end, however, what makes The Grand a memorable comedy is that the main stories are really about families — how they screw you up and how they save you. And you don't have to understand poker to know the rules of that game.

The Grand opens today in Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto. Special to The Globe and Mail