THE GAMBLER – The Review

At year’s end and with little fanfare comes one of the very best movies of 2014. Rupert Wyatt’s spellbinding THE GAMBLER is a dangerously cool drama with a heart, a brain, a terrific lead performance from Mark Wahlberg, and enough existential angst to please lovers of European art-house cinema. It’s a remake of a 1974 film that starred James Caan (and his man-fro) written by James Toback who receives producer credit on the new one.

University Literature Professor Jim Bennett (Wahlberg) has a monkey on his back. He loves to gamble. He’ll wager on anything for overwhelming stakes. But more than winning Jim likes the thrill, the uncertainty, and even the threat of disaster that ultimately could mean a beating or worse. Jim runs up tens of thousands at an upscale Korean-owned gambling den. He never sets any of his winnings aside, doubling down at blackjack until he blows it all. Suddenly he’s in for $240k to the casino’s owner Mr. Lee (Alvin Ing – gentle menace). His solution is to borrow thousands more from ‘King of Spades’ shylock Neville (Michael Kenneth Williams), which he loses as well. He squeezes more cash from his hard-hearted mother (Jessica Lange – fierce), but that doesn’t last long either. Enter Frank, a brutish loan shark played by a sweaty, bald John Goodman (an Award-worthy turn) who offers Jim sage advice and delivers a rousing monologue on the ‘F*ck you’ position. As the debts begin to converge, Jim turns to one of his basketball-playing students who may be willing to throw a game if the price is right.

THE GAMBLER almost immediately plunges the audience into the low-down, sordid details of Jim’s obsession, but not before a prologue featuring the great George Kennedy. One of my favorite characters actors, and one I haven’t seen on the big screen since the last NAKED GUN movie two decades ago, Kennedy plays Jim’s wealthy grandfather and opens the film with a terrific deathbed speech offering Jim advice but no inheritance; “I need to know what you’re worth when I leave you nothing”. THE GAMBLER follows Jim’s downward path with unexpected art and skill from the director of RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES. From its opening shots, Wyatt’s movie is as cool and controlled as its protagonist. Artfully chosen L.A. locations, measured tracking shots, Greig Fraser’s striking cinematography, and some time lapse all contribute to the film’s heightened mood. Mark Wahlberg’s cagey performance is the key to what makes the movie work so well He plays Jim steely and slightly unhinged – watch him hilariously destroy pawn shop etiquette in a memorable scene. Like all the best anti-heroes, Jim operates according to his own moral code, but can’t resist a pretty face, especially when it belongs to Brie Larson playing his brightest student. Some of the best scenes depict Jim’s day job teaching a course on the modern novel to a “classroom of students who don’t give a f*ck”. Jim is more lively and enraged lecturing at length about Camus and Shakespeare than he is at the gambling table, lending the story a larger dimension without getting too heavy-handed. What Wyatt has done is pull off a thrilling hybrid of hard-boiled American crime and art-house sensibilities. Not everyone will like THE GAMBLER. Some will reckon Wyatt is striving too hard to be hip and arty but it is this year’s unconventional adult alternative to the Christmas blockbuster. It’s vulgar, features nudity and violence (Jim takes some beatings), and John Goodman is shown topless (leave the kids at home!), but lovers of gritty crime dramas will surely fall in love with this ‘70s throwback that’s never afraid to show a hand that always comes up aces. The best Christmas present from Hollywood this year turns out to be THE GAMBLER.

5 of 5 Stars