Sterling (Angus Cloud) has a choice at the beginning of the new thriller Your Lucky Day. As he stands in a corner liquor store on a dreary night in Florida, belligerent Mr. Laird (Spencer Garrett) learns that he is the winner of the $156 million Megaball lottery ticket. As Laird berates store clerk Abraham (Elliot Knight) and cackles over his win, Sterling weighs the pros and cons of stealing a lottery ticket worth millions. It would solve his immediate problems for sure. But what next? Dan Brown writes and directs a pulpy thriller that works more than not to deliver a gritty story of greed born from moments of desperation.

As Sterling decides to hold the new lottery winner at gunpoint in a convenience store late at night, he neglects to take into account the others hovering about. There is Ana (Jessica Garza) and her boyfriend Abraham (Elliot Knight) who are flirting over the cold case of ice creams. Then there is Cody (Sterling Beaumon), a uniformed police officer who goes unnoticed. Sterling chooses violence and holds the new lottery winner at gunpoint in exchange for the winning ticket. It’s at this point that viewers must make the leap. Does possession of a winning lottery ticket, despite witnesses and an electronic trail of transactions, confirm ownership and entitlement? If you go with it, Your Lucky Day blossoms into a tense thriller rife with moral conundrums. If not, you sit there punching holes through the savory concept, wishing you could enjoy it more. I landed playfully in the former category but with reservations.

Once Sterling commits his crime he must convince his hostages to join him in a cover-up. Again, this is another huge ask of the audience, but one with provocative merit. This leaves the strength of the film to the power of the performances. Amir (Mousa Hussein Kraish) is the store owner who navigates a multi-million dollar win in his store, a robbery, and the invitation to be an accomplice in one night. While very good, Kraish is never given the material to justify his character’s decisions much less the screen time to convey the complexities of his choice. Beaumon’s nascent lawman Cody is the typical do-gooder in a bad situation. The only actor that is offered the chance to really burn up the screen is Garza. Her turn as Ana is the discovery of fresh talent. Garza imbues her character with consistent thought and motive making Ana the character that we latch on to.

Not to spoil the movie, but things go from bad to worse to much worse.  Dan Brown recalls the work of John Carpenter in that we have an avoidable moment that leads to an unwinnable outcome. The bottom falls out and it’s anyone’s guess who might prevail after that. The joy in Your Lucky Day is to allow the audience the chance to consider the consequences of the collective impulse and then run from them. Brown‘s film is a hell of a ride, but with just a bit more work, it could have been much more.

6 Out of 10