It’s screenwriting 101 lesson 1 to put your “hero” in peril
that looks impossible to get out of, and
let him solve his problems with the deepest resources of his character.
So it is with “
The Gambler”, directed by Rupert Wyatt. We like college literature professor Jim
Bennett (“Marky Mark” Wahlberg, now 43 but still smooth) because he talks fast,
sounds smart, and can manipulate people.
But why is he addicted to gambling in the first place? The movie will take him through seven days of
evading loan sharks (mostly bruiser-types and “Koreans”, rather like John
Grisham’s goons) who will threaten his family (his mother, Jessica Lange) and
students --- and that process, well known from the underworld and Mafia movies,
would get really dangerous in asymmetric war against people just for political
motivation. In the end, yes, Marky
outsmarts them, partly because he is really good at poker. Not chess, but a real game of chance.
The college sport du jour here is basketball, which may explain a Christmas
Day release for a film that really belongs in early Spring. Yes, Bennett gets pressured to pass student
athletes, including Lamar (Anthony Kelly), and he’s good at fixing basketball
games past their Vegas spread. A second
sport is tennis, but Dexter (Emory Cohen) is less convincing as a kid, who,
despite stardom, has trouble beating Marky’s mom.
The best scene in the film comes early, where Marky engages
the students in a lecture hall, about how Shakespeare expressed rage over the
fact that, not only is wealth unequal, but basic human talent is distributed by
anti-Maoist luck too. Marky is fumed
about his status as a midlist novelist, whose publisher will probably soon drop
him down into just Kindle sales. He says he isn’t that good as a writer. Few people have the muse, just as few have
the gift to compose music like Beethoven, or few can pitch or hit home
runs. Only gifted student Amy (Brie
Larson, although Brit Marling comes to mind) is good enough. Guess what,
possible romance with a student.
The official site is
here. Paramount did not use its impressive musical
introduction here, instead immediately starting the sounds of a pinwheel.
Leonardo Di Caprio was supposed to star at first, and the
film would have had a different take. The
film appears to be a remake of a 1974 film by Karel Reisz. The new version is written by James Monahan
and William Toback.
There were no outdoor scenes in Las Vegas, which I would
have expected. I saw the film at the AMC Courthouse, before a fair early Sunday night audience.
For movies of this
subject, I like the 2008 film “21”, by Robert Luketic, where Jim Sturgess plays
the impressive math whiz at card counting.
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