The Founder

B.J. Novak

Harry J. Sonneborn

**A decent film, although the story told is substantially stilted and made more tense than it actually was.** We all know that the business world is not for boy scouts. As the film's protagonist himself assumes, you have to be prepared for the toughness of competitors and moves that are often disloyal. However, this is precisely why great businessmen are usually people worthy of our disdain: they associate coldness and calculation with intelligence and the cult of the ego, and not infrequently they see other people as numbers or as means of business. McDonald's is undoubtedly a huge, very powerful multinational, and the film reveals how the company was born, at the hands of Ray Kroc, who takes over the company, taking it from the control of the founders – the McDonald Brothers – and transforming it into something that is very different from what they dreamed of, although they were satisfied with the money they received for it afterwards, and that the relations between the three, in real life, were not as tough as the movie makes us think. The screenplay, cleverly written but very bitter and unpleasant, inflated the situation and made it more tense. Like Social Network, the film shows us the controversial origins of one of America's most flourishing companies… and makes us dislike whoever built it. And interestingly, contrary to what I initially thought, the McDonald's Corporation seems to have kept a certain distance from this film… why is it? Michael Keaton did a very good job with the main character and knew how to embody the controversial figure of Kroc well, both in voice and in ideas and mannerisms. The actor deserves, in fact, a praise for the way he gave himself to the work. Also, John Lynch and Nick Offerman are in excellent shape and give us very convincing performances, turning the two founding brothers of the company into a harmonious duo in which one thinks and plans, and the other carries out and executes everything on the ground. Unfortunately, the rest of the cast just doesn't do anything of value and sticks to the most basic. Technically, the film is very low-key, although I have to commend the effort made to recreate and bring back to life some of the company's early restaurants, most notably the one in San Bernardino. The effort to be faithful to the original design was very pleasant, as was the use of very appropriate sets, cars, filming locations and costumes, which take us back to the 50s. The cinematography does a discreet but effective job, and the editing is good, not allowing the film to waste time on unnecessary things or lose its rhythm.