REVIEW: The Founder explores story of flawed McDonald’s founder

Concentrated on the strengths of this man who stole a business from others, The Founder explains McDonald’s founder Ray Croc’s success, engaging the audience to think for themselves if this triumph is extraordinary and worth revering.

The movie begins in 1954, as Croc (Michael Keaton) is not yet an underlying force of fast food empire, but a salesman with his pitch to a prospective customer who isn’t impressed at all. Croc is frustrated not only with his failures in selling milkshakes to fast-food joints, but also with his unambitious wife Ethel (Laura Dern). He knows there is a relentless force and will deep inside his personality, which is not yet fully discovered.

As viewers may know from history, Croc’s name is tied with the McDonald’s fast food empire, although he was not the first to envision a high efficient restaurant chain that became capable of providing customers orders within less than a minute. Croc visits the first San Bernardino McDonald’s station, and from this moment on, his life was never the same.

His character takes an opportunity to charm McDonald’s founders and open his franchise, thus evolving from a hopeless milkshake salesman into a fierce businessman with his own vision and personal driving force. He is not as talented and innovative as a founder of the biggest fast food enterprise should be, but Croc’s character certainly does not lack ability to turn everything around into his tools to achieve success. By calculating every detail and striving toward impeccable performance, Croc makes his fortune on the McDonald’s brand.  

The movie wavers between sympathizing Croc’s character while exposing his harmful energy. The Founder is supported by subplots with characters suffering from the main protagonist’s complicated and sometimes cruel personality.

For example, Croc’s loving wife, Ethel, was replaced by Joan (Linda Cardellini), who becomes his third wife but is more fitting for his character’s vision and understanding of life. The supporting actors create an important background for the main theme, escalating the viewer’s perception of Ray’s conflicting personality.

Keaton gives a high-level performance through his character, delivering an old-fashioned life lesson on how weakness and absence of rigidness can cause a complete withdrawal from business. The decent side fallen from the power of Ray Croc’s grit is presented by McDonald’s brothers (Nick Offerman as Dick, John Caroll Lynch as Mac) who make the audience think about moral standards versus charismatic vices.
The Founder is a carefully executed movie that reveals the backstory of fast food chain development, intertwined with personal dramas. This combination works well with the audience, as the world of business may change with the new technologies and fast moving innovations, but the art of dealing with the obstacles on the way to success will always require people to push their limits — and this theme is highly relatable. This new film from John Lee Hancock (Saving Mr. Banks, The Blind Side) is an entertaining biopic and a great complement to the director’s collection of authentically American stories crafted with soul.