The Grand

The Grand is a 2008 improv comedy film directed by Zak Penn. The film has an ensemble cast including Ray Romano, Woody Harrelson, Chris Parnell, Werner Herzog, Jason Alexander, Dennis Farina, David Cross, Gabe Kaplan, Michael Karnow and Cheryl Hines along with several real Las Vegas poker stars. According to Penn, the film is styled after those of Christopher Guest, in which each actor is given direction concerning their character and the actors are left to improvise each individual scene. The plot of The Grand was somewhat more open-ended than Guest's work, however. The focus of the film is a poker tournament played at the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas between the characters in which real poker matches were played by the actors as the scenes were filmed. The film's script did not specify the winner of the tournament, and the ending of the film was determined by the actual game played on set. The film debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival, and was distributed by Anchor Bay Entertainment. The film opened in limited release in the United States on March 21, 2008, opened in wider release on April 4, 2008. Plot Jack Faro (Woody Harrelson) is a recovering drug addict who, after many relapses, decides to move into a rehabilitation facility full-time. Having been married 75 times, he is a serial husband and is always on the lookout for number 76. He enters The Grand, a Texas Hold 'Em poker tournament in Las Vegas created by his grandfather Lucky Faro (Barry Corbin). His main motivation is to win the $10 million prize to cover a loan he got to keep open his family's casino, The Rabbit's Foot, which his grandfather left him when he died and that he has mismanaged since.