Movie Review: 'Playing God'

Playing God stars Hannah Kasulka and Luke Benward as the brother and sister con artist team, Rachel and Micah. Having lost their mother when they were very young and having never known their father, Rachel and Micah have always relied on their wits and each other. When they were 11 years old, they’re twins though not identical, they tried to rob the till at a roller rink. There they met Frank (Michael McKean), a long time con artist who took them under his wing.

Now, as adults, they tend to run small time grifts such as a fake charity where well meaning people pay to support small children from foreign countries. But, instead of ‘for just $4.00 per month you can help a starving child,’ they’ve figured a way to convince people to pay thousands of dollars to help out starving children. Naturally, they pocket the cash and pay tiny sums to neighborhood kids to pretend to be starving in foreign countries.

Lately however, Hannah has begun to question her line of work. She’s become friendly with a lovely hipster couple June (Jude Demorest) and Owen (Leighton B Allen) and begun to regret taking thousands of dollars from them. Her problems are put on the back burner however, when Owen reveals just how much trouble he’s gotten them into. It seems that Micah has fallen into debt to a local gangster, Vaughn (Marc Menchaca), for more than $200,000.00. Vaughn has threatened to kill them both if the debt isn’t paid quickly.

As it happens, Micah has stumbled across a potential big money scheme. A friend has pointed him in the direction of a millionaire, Ben, played by Alan Tudyk, who is dying from some unnamed terminal illness. Before Ben goes he wants to speak to God and has approached churches and various religious leaders to try and make this happen. Micah’s scheme is to give Ben what he wants, the chance to talk to God, in person.

Posing as Angels, Rachel and Micah approach Ben and make an offer, they will set him up with a meeting with God. Meanwhile, a fresh from prison Frank arrives at just the right moment to play the Almighty. Though he balks at the idea initially, claiming he’s afraid of going back to jail, Frank soon agrees to the scheme once he understands just how much money they can get in this deal. Now, all the trio has to do is make Ben believe.

This sounds like a comedic premise and given that Michael McKean is playing god in Playing God, and having a ball doing it, you would assume that Playing God is a full on comedy. You would be mistaken. Though writer-director Scott Brignac directs Playing God in a fashion that looks like a comedy and features comedic actors and a comic premise, the movie is rarely funny and proceeds to include several maudlin attempts at drama.

Alan Tudyk who is known for playing comic characters, heroes and creeps alike, is not called upon to be funny in Playing God. He’s a mopey, lonely, grieving man with a dire backstory. He’s dying and he recently lost his very young daughter in a horrific accident. The idea that our purported heroes plan to take this man for thousands of dollars really makes them look bad. Even as Hannah demonstrates a great deal of conflict about the idea she’s still a rather unforgivable, unsympathetic character in Playing God.

I’m not sure who all this drama is for or why the movie employs Michael McKean to be impish and charming as a con artist pretending to be God. This should be a comedy, it should all be quite funny and cheery and yet, the movie goes in such a sad direction that you can’t find much of anything to grab onto to enjoy. Tudyk is not a bad dramatic actor but his hangdog expression and loose limbed physicality are more typical of comedy and yet he’s not playing comedy.

The incongruity grows even more amiss in the final act with the return of the heavy, Vaughn, and a turn toward something more akin to a crime thriller than a comedy or a drama. Weird choices are everywhere from the choice to film in light colors and bright exteriors reminiscent of a comedy to the score which fails to make any impression, either dramatic or comedic. In the end we are left with signifiers flying in opposite directions, dramatic performances and story beats filmed with a lighthearted aesthetic.

It all adds up to a deeply confused and misguided movie that isn’t unpleasant or even all that bad. Playing God has a terrific lead turn by Hannah Kasulka who is completely let down by the bizarre directorial and screenwriting choices. McKean and Tudyk are equally good as two different kinds of paternal figures. Their dynamic together offers the most of the potential of Playing God as these two pros bounce off each other wonderfully. It’s a shame that the movie is such a mess of tone and aesthetic as these two wonderful character actors are left stranded in the end.

Playing God is now in limited theatrical release and available for streaming rental.