WASHINGTON — Each day, McDonald’s feeds 1 percent of Earth’s population.
But did the rise of the Golden Arches forsake the Golden Rule?
That’s the theme of “The Founder,” a simultaneous celebration of ambition, innovation and entrepreneurship, while a cautionary tale of greed, hypocrisy and broken promises.
The film tells the true story of Ray Kroc (Michael Keaton), a salesman struggling to sell milkshake mixers in Illinois. His life changes one fateful day in 1954 when he stumbles upon a family-run burger joint in San Bernardino, California. Impressed by the pioneering fast-food operation, he convinces its owners, brothers Dick and Mac McDonald (Nick Offerman and John Carroll Lynch), to go national.
Almost immediately, their competing visions for the company clash. The brothers want a limited number of wholesome restaurants, while Kroc wants to expand the franchise as much as possible, buying up real estate for new locations and cutting costs by questionable means, like using powder instead of milk in the milkshakes. By 1961, the conflict comes to a head, as the brothers reluctantly sell their company to Kroc for $2.7 million, leaving a million bucks for each brother after taxes.
The film works to the extent that it does because of Michael Keaton, whose comeback is complete after starring in the past two Best Picture winners: “Birdman” (2014) and “Spotlight” (2015). While he played flawed but likable heroes in those films, Keaton brilliantly evolves Kroc from dreamer to workaholic to dog-eat-dog opportunist.
Realizing no one wants to eat at a place called “Krocs,” he sets about co-opting the “McDonald’s” name from the brothers. You’ll grimace as he gradually gives into Hamburglar impulses, taking the brothers’ original concept and exploiting it for his own profit. By the time he reneges on a handshake deal, we question his winner-take-all mentality.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Movie history is filled with masterpieces where unlikable heroes chase the American Dream to the point they’re consumed by it. Cinematic names like Charles Foster Kane, Michael Corleone, Jake LaMotta and Daniel Plainview instantly come to mind.
But while those characters ended up alone — whispering to a snow globe, staring at the cold waters of Lake Tahoe, cracking jokes in a cheap nightclub or sitting in a basement bowling alley — Kroc appears to benefit from his transgressions, voted one of Time’s 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century. Did the ends justify the means?
Kroc’s portrait is both a credit to Keaton’s greasy mannerisms and his co-stars’ sympathetic naivety. Played by Nick Offerman, star of TV’s “Fargo” (2015), and John Carroll Lynch, who played Norm in the movie “Fargo” (1996), audiences will likely watch “The Founder” thinking of Marge Gunderson’s timeless warning: “There’s more to life than a little money. Don’t you know that?”
That appears to be the message from filmmaker John Lee Hancock, who often directs inspirational true stories like “The Blind Side” (2009) and “Saving Mr. Banks” (2013), and screenwriter Robert D. Siegel, who often pens more cynical grit like Darren Aronofsky’s “The Wrestler” (2008). Together, they create a compelling A-story filled with the wheeling and dealing of a booming restaurant empire.
Where they lose their way, however, is the B-story, as Kroc comes home to his neglected housewife (Laura Dern), who’s increasingly tired of his cockamamie get-rich-quick schemes. This device has become a bit of a screenwriting cliche, but it can still work with the proper treatment. Unfortunately, the dialogue is too on-the-nose and the pacing is too in a hurry to get out of these domestic scenes.
In their first scene together, Dern says, “When’s enough going to be enough?” In their second scene, Keaton climbs into bed and says, “I know I’ve been neglecting you.” In their third scene together, Dern asks, “Did you mortgage our home? We could lose everything.” Finally, we get to what should be an emotional breakup, but instead we get two lines: “Pass the salt” and “I want a divorce.” End scene.
In this way, the film is like the fast-food business it portrays, suffering from a drive-thru mentality. A few more rewrites would have knocked off the so-called screenwriting “draft dust,” which plays like the phony milkshake powder. It appears authentic on the outside, but it’s artificial on the inside. In real life, we rarely say what we actually mean, shrouding our intentions and talking past each other.
That’s the special sauce missing from this Big Mac.
Still, for all these flaws, the majority of the film is a gripping watch. We eagerly watch from scene to scene out of sheer curiosity for how McDonald’s was founded. The script offers plenty of rewarding insights: the origin of the Golden Arches, the idea of pickles on the burgers and the secret to the greasy french-fry goodness. There’s also a smart level of social commentary, as Kroc describes his vision of churches (crosses), courthouses (flags) and restaurants (Golden Arches) in every town.
“Do it for your country,” Kroc tells the brothers in a patriotic appeal, foreshadowing his final scene where he practices lines in a mirror for a banquet with California Gov. Ronald Reagan. As we see the film’s final reveal, we wonder what lesson we should take away. Should we despise McDonald’s? Or embrace the idea that “all is fair” in love and fast food?
The ensuing information in the obligatory “where are they now” end credits is too conflicting to provide any clues. Is the music of Norman Greenbaum’s “Spirit in the Sky” a subversive hint that Kroc’s judgement is coming? Perhaps. All I know is that if I hear that song used during the end credits one more time, I’m going to scream so loud that Ronald McDonald jumps out of his clown suit.
A far better pick would have been Dire Straits’ “Boom, Like That,” the lyrics of which are perfect for this theme: Sometimes you gotta be an S.O.B., you wanna make a dream reality. Competition? Send ‘em south. If they’re gonna drown, put a hose in their mouth. Do not pass go, go straight to hell. … That’s ‘Kroc’ with a ‘K,’ like ‘crocodile,’ but not spelt that way, now. It’s dog eat dog, rat eat rat. Kroc-style. Boom, like that.
Now that would have been a satisfying final bite to a master chef’s confection. Instead, you’ll walk out of the movie theater feeling like you just scarfed down a mixed bag of a McDonald’s Happy Meal. It tasted delicious at first, but the longer it sat in your stomach, the more you regretted eating it. But don’t lie, if you were sitting on the couch flipping through the channels, you’d probably indulge again.
