The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard.

Usually by the time a movie shows up theaters, I've seen the trailer enough times to know much of the plot outline and theme. Lately, however, there have been a couple releases that have arrived without my having seen a single trailer, either in the theater or on television. The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard fell into that category. I barely knew anything about the movie when I went to see it last week.

It had been out for about a month, and I had missed seeing it in Maryland. By last week, it was showing only in a single theater in the Memphis area, at the Malco multiplex in the Wolfchase Galleria mall, far out in the eastern suburb of Bartlett, Tennessee.

It took me about an hour to get there, since I chose to drive on the city streets all the way until I got almost out in the countryside, where the highway grew wide and lined with big box retailers and fast food outlets.

The Wolfchase Galleria is a nice mall, two stories. The theater was right next to the food court, and beside a children's carousel. It had a huge old-style marquee that made it the most interesting feature in the mall itself. The interior, however, was very conventional and felt a little careworn and musty. There weren't even stadium seating. It seemed at odds with the niceness of the rest of the mall.

I was one of the three people that afternoon to see the matinee of The Goods. It was one of those movies that really defied my expectations.

As it opens, we are in the California desert, at a used car dealership run, the owner of which is played by James Brolin. The dealership has fallen on hard times and the salesmen are incompetent. In order to save his business, the owner reluctantly calls upon the services of a hired gun, an intinerant top-notch dealmaker played by Jeremy Piven, who is actually the leader of a four-person team.

At this point, I figure that Piven's character is going to be the villain, and we are going to see how he and his slimeball teammates take advantge of situation to sam Brolin's character. But this turned out to be all wrong. Piven's character is actually the hero. Indeed, he is a uber-driven salesguy, but what's wrong with that, really? The narrative centers around his redemption in the wake of a tragic incident in Albuquerque in which he caused the death of his best friend during one of his sell-a-thons.

This deceased best friend turns out to be played by Will Ferrell, who was one of the producers of this film. Ferrell wisely limited himself to a minor character role in this case, one that is farcical, but in just the right way towards the end of the movie, after the farce has been built up to the appropriate level.

I liked this movie a lot. It was funny and original, keeping me interested in all the characters right up to the end. It didn't get much publicity in the theaters, but I suspect it be a hit on DVD in the long run. Piven was perfect casting for it, as was Brolin and the other supporting characters.

My only beef with the story was at the end, there was a crummy Animal House-style epilogue in which we get to hear what happens to the characters in the following years. It was overly cynical, pointless and actually sort of spoiled the story a little bit for me. The movie would have been a lot better without it. I've arrived at the opinion that in almost every case, movies should be without such epilogues unless there is an overriding reason to have them. The narrative should speak for itself, and we should not need afterwords. It was almost as the film makers were afraid that people might like the story too much, so they pissed on their own characters to ensure that the audience knew that they weren't being serious. Boo! But like I said, it was a minor part of this movie, thankfully.