Heartland Film Festival: When Jeff Tried to Save the World

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The Big Lebowski and Kingpin are considered by many film fans to be two of the best bowling movies ever made. Both films have amassed legions of passionate fans who can recite many of the one liners that have become ingrained in the pop culture lexicon.

When Jeff Tried to Save the World will not have the following of the aforementioned films nor will its lines be quoted ad nauseam either, but it is a charming though slow-paced indie dramedy directed by Kendall Goldberg.

Jeff, played by a sad-looking Jon Heder, is the manager of Winky’s World, a bowling alley that he runs with the efficiency of a bullet train. Every day at Winky’s is a carbon copy of the last and Jeff finds comfort in the predictable and routine world he has created for himself.

When Jeff finds out the owner plans to sell Winky’s, he devises a plan to bring in more business in the hope that this will keep the bowling alley open.

We notice early on that Jeff receives numerous voice mails left by his mother, a character we never meet, but we hear the concern and longing as she tries to connect with Jeff via long distance calls.

When Jeff’s sister Lindy (Anna Konkle) brings her roommate Samantha (Maya Erskine) over to stay at Jeff’s place for a much needed medical school break, Jeff’s world is further inconvenienced. Samantha’s visit sparks a fast and awkward romance that isn’t very convincing and ultimately goes nowhere.

One reoccurring image throughout the movie is of Jeff playing a video game that he both designed and built. The running gag is the owner always gets the game’s name wrong, Whizzing Winky’s. There are scenes where Jeff is playing the game when he suddenly is trapped in a VR nightmare within the game world itself and he wakes up startled and alone in bed.

Lindy’s arrival reveals some of Jeff’s life before he became Winky’s manager, his need for the routine and comfort that Winky’s provides and the estrangement from his family.

Those expecting a Napoleon Dynamite performance from Heder will leave disappointed. Jeff is the straight man in the film with other characters introducing comedic elements but Jeff is the most emotionally vested character in the film. We are drawn to his story via Heder’s portrayal of a sad, lonely and anxious Everyman.

Jeff sets out to save Winky’s as a way to avoid having to deal with his own real world issues. Along the way he discovers that living a life with bowling lane bumpers on is no way to avoid life’s gutter balls.