Jerry and Marge Go Large to win the lottery and save the town

Jerry and Marge Go Large is based on a true story about a couple who found a flaw in the lottery and used it to make enough money to revive their entire decaying town and help their community. Beware the spoilers.

Jerry and Marge Go Large stars Bryan Cranston as Jerry and Annette Bening as Marge. Jerry is a math genius but not good with people. When he faces retirement and his “golden years” he’s lost. He overhears a conversation about the lottery in the store where he grabs his morning coffee. He reads the back of the lottery ads about the odds and realizes there is a way to beat the system.

He just needed to buy a ton of tickets on the day before the Roll down.

He tried it with several thousand dollars of his own money before Marge found out what he was doing – and how much money he made.

Let’s back up a bit to explain that Larry and Marge had two grown kids (Jake McDorman and Anna Camp) and some grandkids. They lived in a small town that was slowly dying. Empty storefronts, broken down community areas, and lack of money hampered everyone.

Larry explained what he was doing to his CPA Steve (Larry Wilmore). Steve wanted in on it. Marge suggested letting the whole community in on it. Let their kids in on it. More money to purchase tickets meant more profits. The town formed a corporation and Marge and Jerry spent days every month peering at lottery tickets (thousands of them) to find 2, 3, and 4 number winners.

Eventually they had to start driving 8 hours to Massachusetts to buy the tickets at a liquor store run by Bill (Rainn Wilson). He thought they were a couple of goofy old folks at first, but soon wanted in on it too. Jerry, Marge, and Bill became good friends as they spent days in his store printing lottery tickets every three weeks.

While the townspeople were busy reopening small businesses, repairing the town infrastructure, and buying Corvettes, a smart kid at Harvard, Tyler (Uly Schlesinger), noticed the same flaw in the lottery system. He recruited his fellow students to do basically the same thing Jerry and Marge were doing, but he wasn’t sharing the wealth with anybody. When he heard about the old couple doing the same thing, he tried to sabotage them.

A newspaper reporter, Maya (Tracie Thoms), wrote about what they were doing and the whole scheme fell apart. But the benefits to Marge and Jerry’s community and family were already in place.

Not all the details are exactly true in the movie, but you see the real Jerry and Marge in the credits at the end. The story is true enough to be heartwarming and worth watching. It’s light and fun and filled with lovable characters and only a few villains.

You can find Jerry and Marge Go Large streaming on Paramount + or you can rent it from Apple TV+, Google Play, Prime Video, or a couple of other places.

P.S. The Massachusetts State Lottery has since changed the way they do things to eliminate the statistical loophole that let Jerry and Marge win millions legally. I know . . . bummer.