It all starts with an order for six multi-spindle milkshake mixers, the kind of item that travelling salesman Ray Kroc (Michael Keaton, Spotlight) usually has trouble selling. After calling the Californian eatery in question to confirm — and discovering not only was the purchase correct, but that the buyer would actually like to increase the quantity — Kroc incredulously, excitedly jumps in his car, heads to San Bernardino, spends 55 cents on a burger, fries and soft drink served straightaway in disposable packaging, and experiences the revolutionary-at-the-time fast food experience that is McDonald’s circa 1954. Soon, he’s taking a tour with owners Mac (John Carroll Lynch, Miracles From Heaven) and Dick (Nick Offerman, TV’s Fargo), discovering their Speedee service system, envisaging expansion potential, and talking franchises. And so, the bustling burger behemoth consumers know and eat at today began to take shape.
Stamped with a title cognisant of the role Kroc endeavours to manoeuvre himself into, as well as nodding to the formative years covered in the narrative, The Founder is an origin story, but there’s no superheroes in sight. Rather, director John Lee Hancock (Saving Mr. Banks) and writer Robert D. Siegel (Turbo) track Kroc’s plan to use the McDonald brothers’ business as a launching pad for the success he feels he deserves. Grounding his efforts in mentions of years spent struggling to spruik different products — and evidence of his strained dealings with banks, the joke-like status he’s held in at his country club, and the obvious discontent of his largely neglected wife Ethel (Laura Dern, Certain Women) — can’t paint Kroc as a battler, though. Here, the rise of the golden arches is mirrored by his ascension, capitalising upon someone else’s ingenuity and innovation in meeting hungry customers’ needs to spark growth, greed, ambition and ruthlessness.
Indeed, Kroc may sit at the centre of the feature; however, other than recognising his determination and never-take-no-for-an-answer attitude, this isn’t a flattering tale. It is a familiar one, though, once again taking a corruption-sized chunk out of the American dream — and slathering what’s left with desperation and callousness-laced sauce. And yet, while slick editing by Robert Frazen (The Family Fang), glossy imagery shot by John Schwartzman (Jurassic World) and colouring the visuals in shades reminiscent of the brand at its centre all help shape the largely explanatory, expository script into something engaging enough, the McDonald’s-related minutiae, bickering and backstabbing overwhelms any focus on character. In a film intent on using one company and the figure that thinks he’s behind it as a case study with wider societal parallels, that might be fitting; however, there’s an imbalance in Hancock and Siegel’s recipe.
Wanting to have their meat, bun, ketchup, mustard, pickle, cheese and lettuce and eat it too, The Founder aims to expose the backstory most people won’t know, pick out some of the juicy details, and let audiences gleefully munch away on a shiny piece of entertainment. And, with the assistance of Keaton, who is tasked with jittering his way to conveying Kroc’s external perseverance and internal vulnerability, it tries to balance its overt packaging with hints of deeper flavour. In both cases, slickness wins out over texture, and ease over complexity, in a movie uncertain of the right tone or stance to adopt. Keaton fares much better than the film he’s in — in fact, any subtleties The Founder boasts stem from his performance — but the end result remains lightweight rather than filling.
Take a number of small but blatant choices as examples: having Keaton often recite Kroc’s spiels to camera, favouring simplistic contrasts between the quality-over-cash mindset of the McDonald siblings and the more-is-more position of their new partner turned corporate hijacker, and trying to bring the feature to an end with a wink rather than any real bite all speak of an effort selling a concept rather than actual contemplation or a statement. Or, perhaps that’s the message that Hancock and Siegel are happy to convey, with smooth but empty consumerism pursued at any cost begetting a digestible but insubstantial film offering more of the same.
Rating: 2 ½ stars out of 5
The Founder
Director: John Lee Hancock
USA, 2016, 115 mins
Release date: 24 November
Distributor: Roadshow
Rated: M
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