Review: CASINO JACK

You can’t always go by your first impressions. When the story of uber-lobbyist Jack Abramoff first hit the news, the media seemed to rejoice in having a hiss-able bad guy. The cable news channels loved running the video of his “perp walk” complete with wardrobe by Boris Badenov ( matching black fedora and trench coat ). Early last year we got to know more of the full story with Alex Gibney’s documentary CASINO JACK AND THE UNITED STATES OF MONEY.  And now the feature drama based on the true story of D.C. corruption has arrived at movie theatres: George Hickenlooper’s CASINO JACK with Kevin Spacey in the title role. With this telling we learn much more about the real man behind the scandals ( and late night TV monologue jokes).

The film opens with a tribute to the first few minutes of RAGING BULL. Abramoff stares into a mirror and recites a list of personal triumphs (“I work out every day!”) He’s almost giving himself a pep talk. Flash back several years to Jack’s job as a confident, ambitious hot-shot at a Washington lobbying firm and his life at home with his kids and devoted wife Pam (Kelly Preston). With the help of his right hand man, Michael Scanlon (Barry Pepper), Jack gets involved with a Native American owned casino much to the ire of Bernie Sprauge (Graham Greene). Soon Jack expands his money flow by buying into an off-shore cruise ship casino. He decides to enlist an old buddy, Adam Kinan (Jon Lovitz) as his front man, so as to keep his name clean. The money’s soon flowing as Jack is able to buy off politicians who pave the way for these shady operations. Jack forms his own “consulting” firm and decides to open up a high class restaurant,a deli and build a children’s sports complex. It’s not long before greed causes everything to unravel. Thanks to Bernie and Scanlon’s ex-girlfriend Emily (Rachel Lefevre), law enforcement starts investigating and Jack’s powerful pals like Tom DeLay (Spencer Garrett) cannot halt the wheels of justice.

CASINO JACK attempts to walk a fine line between being a slapstick comedy and a scathing indictment of D.C. corruption. It’s fairly even handed in its portrait of business as usual with members of both political parties grabbing up those cash stuffed envelopes. There’s some terrific acting on display here. This film shows a Kevin Spacey we don’t see much of at the movies. He juggles heavy dramatic scenes ( the mirror pep talk, a verbal smack-down with a former boss, domestic turmoil as the feds move in) with great comic sequences. The real Abramoff is a big movie buff ( he produced the Dolph Lungrin action flick RED SCORPION), so he peppers his speech with many film references. This gives Spacey the chance to show off the impressionist skills he generally uses in his talk show appearances. At one point he imagines a court room scene with John McCain turning into the finale of …AND JUSTICE FOR ALL. Spacey gets great support from Pepper who goes from brash, go-getter to a crying informant when taken into custody. I’m not sure if the casting of SNL funnyman Jon Lovitz works.He’s given a brief chance to show his dramatic range, but soon he’s playing a variation of the sleazy crook we’ve seen in many other films and TV appearances. We also see the final film performance of the fine character actor Maury Chaykin unfortunately underused as a pasta-slurping hit man caricature.

Speaking of finals, unfortunately CASINO JACK  is the final film of the gifted director George Hickenlooper. The fine performances mentioned above are due to his skills in working with actors. Although the tone of the film is inconsistent in spots, the pacing and staging of scenes are first rate and never dull. After nearly twenty years of making dramas and documentaries, this film is his finest work. His untimely death last October at age 47 makes one wonder what masterpieces he would have given us. Fortunately this last work is an enlightening, entertaining look at a man who was much more than what we saw on the news.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars