An American revolution starts in the drive-thru lane, in John Lee Hancock’s “The Founder”. The movie features the true story of how Ray Kroc (Michael Keaton), a struggling salesman from Illinois, met Mac and Dick McDonald, who were running a burger operation in 1950s Southern California. Kroc was impressed by the brothers’ speedy system of making the food and saw franchise potential. Writer Robert Siegel details how Kroc maneuvered himself into a position to be able to pull the company from the clutches of the brothers and create a billion-dollar empire, while maneuvering the legalities of such a move. The film also stars Laura Dern as Ray Kroc’s first wife Ethel; John Carroll Lynch as Mac McDonald and Nick Offerman as Dick McDonald. It is rated PG-13 for brief adult language.

The business of McDonalds goes far beyond hamburgers and shakes. This is very much as American as it gets in terms of business icons, so I was greatly excited to watch Hancock’s story of Kroc and the McDonald brothers play out on the big screen. Ultimately, The Founder was a solid watch that I never wasn’t having a good time with, but its lack of dramatic depth makes very little compelling or memorable in terms of American court cases over an instant money makers. After watching the trailers, I expected this to be a very nasty battle of owner rights to the golden arches, but it never plays out as jaw-dropping as films like The Wolf of Wall Street, or The Social Network. What does work is that screenwriter Robert Siegel’s script is very informative in tracing through the roots of this inevitable success story, while playing against the backdrop of an era that expected results fast. The burgers itself serve as more of a table dressing for the more important main course of a real business story and just how fast everything plays out in the form of stealing. With every great idea comes a businessman just waiting to swoop it up and make it his own, and Hancock’s film is at least a reminder of sorts to tread carefully when revealing your formulas.

From a storytelling point of view, the movie hits all of the right notes in the very presence of what would later be considered fast food, during the 50’s. By giving us an up close and personal look with our central character going through the motions of waiting endlessly for meals, as well as the order being wrong a majority of the time, Hancock illustrates marvelously at the importance of changing the business all together. The concepts of speed vs quality was carefully chosen during this time, but the McDonalds concept itself brought both together in a tasty marriage that served as a license to print money. When you think about how that design has fallen through the cracks in our own modern day models, The Founder feels like a welcoming nostalgia trip to a time when people took pride in their businesses. There’s plenty that this film describes in great detail, like the alternative to milk shakes, the franchising with friends of Kroc’s at each helm, and the concept of realty playing a driving force on building an empire. Pacing isn’t a problem nearly as much as how rushed everything feels over a formulaic digestion. I’m confident that a two-and-a-half hour cut of this movie exists somewhere, and that’s because the movie sometimes feels bloated for its grave lack of respect for some of the central issues of this story. One subplot in particular shows how Kroc met his future wife, but their story is literally dropped and forgotten about until the closing credits. Some matters were clearly sacrificed here instead of brought to the table, and the end result feels like the eyes were bigger than the belly in terms of the material of the film’s register.

What does live up to reputation with this product however, and quite possibly my favorite aspect of the film was in the lighting in terms of cinematography, as well as precision editing that is among some of the very best that I have seen in a long time. On the former, the movie depicts beautifully that golden age when roads and property felt fresh. The neon additions to the restaurants at night give the production designs a futuristic touch while presenting us a throwback to the structure and concepts of the restaurants themselves. This is a very clean looking movie, and its investment in budget (7 million) makes this one of the more extravagant comedy biopics, removing it from ever feeling like a TV movie of the week. As for the editing, the use of quick cuts does so much in terms of the audience understanding the speed of the product, as well as the lightning negotiations that took place between the trio of central characters. A movie’s visual creativity is always at its peak when it can be used as an establishing shot for the scene’s particular tone, and the crisp slices that guide the scene slice-by-slice in all of its many angles is certainly easy to indulge in against some quick-witted personalities.

Michael Keaton extraordinarily channels Kroc with determination and savvy brilliance to accurately depict the savage force that envelopes him. Considering his name is Kroc, it’s a touch or ironic brilliance to figuratively see the slithering of this predator before his victims truly feel the bite of his teeth. One of the things that concerned me early on in the movie was that Keaton might be a tad bit likeable under this role, and while it does take a while to get all of his motivations on the table, Kroc is depicted as every bit the cunning and undeterred business mind that always sees the bigger picture. Keaton’s visual appearance leaves slightly more to be desired in casting, but his devilish grin when narrating to the camera certainly signals that Keaton is the man for the job to display American greed. Lynch and Offerman are also delights despite their binding for time in the near two hour finished product. Their lack of involvement is another signal that a bigger cut exists in some studio library, but thankfully the duo are up to the task of going toe-to-toe with Keaton’s Kroc. It’s kind of interesting to see two different sides to these respective brothers, with Dick being the passionate business mind, and Lynch being the kind-hearted assistant to his little brother. Both channel something vast while still carrying off the chemistry of their relationship effortlessly that always keeps them in-sync. The brief, yet informative introduction to their characters served as my personal favorite scene of the movie because my respect and admiration for these brothers who only have each other felt nearly tragic for what they went through during the film’s climax, a sign of personable protagonists.

The Founder is a happy meal offering without any of the calories or indigestion of regret ten minutes after you leave. The material isn’t quite the most dramatically intriguing material, and something like this would be much more suited for the documentary side of storytelling, but there’s too much charm and poignancy in the performance of Keaton to ever pay fault to this far-too fast documentation of history between the McDonalds and Kroc. A true value meal of meaty proportions.

7/10