Joyce Glasser reviews The Gambler (January 23, 2015)
Mark Wahlberg is a very rich and talented actor who made his name in the masterpiece Boogie Nights and the satirical war film Three Kings. He can carry a movie or simply brighten one up with a supporting character role, as in Date Night.
He has put his home town of Boston on the map in films such as the dark comedy, Ted and the excellent, Oscar nominated, drama The Fighter, which he co-produced. He has, of late, had has share of horrors, such as Pain and Gain and Transformers: Age of Extinction.
The Gambler is a more modest project, a character study of Jim Bennett, an author and English professor turned self-destructive gambling addict.
The film is stylishly directed by the talented Rupert Wyatt (Rise of the Planet of the Ages, The Escapist). It is a juicy role for an actor, but the choice is still a curious one as the film lacks a sense of urgency or relevance and struggles to get you to care about the main character.
Part of the problem is that the film suffers by comparison with the original 1974 film that inspired it, starring James Caan and directed by Karel Reisz. Reisz’s film also inspired a bunch of copy cats films (and not films about academics and gamblers) that makes the whole thing feel too familiar.
Jim’s life begins to spiral out of control when he finds himself in serious debt to two gangsters and tries to get a loan from a bulbous loan shark named Fred (John Goodman), whose terms are particularly high.
Jessica Lange spices up the film with a marvellous turn as Jim’s rich mother who, it is suggested, has contributed to his personality disorder by her withdrawal of emotion and motherly love. When his life is threatened, however, she steps forward to give him $250,000 in cash, which he proceeds to lose.
No matter how hard Wyatt and the cast try, they cannot escape William Monahan’s script, which never gives the characters the words we expect, and need to hear. Jim’s lectures are a joke (it appears that alcohol or drugs are his problem here, not gambling) and the gangsters never feel threatening.
Worse is to come when a serious, bright university student (Brie Larson) decides she is in love with the professor she once challenged, and becomes his sidekick and would be saviour.
Jim is apparently so smart that he devises a complex solution to his problem that involves double crossing his money lenders but ensuring that they are all reimbursed and no harm is done. This plan is so ingenious that the audience might struggle to understand it.
Monahan forgets however, that Jim already had the money to pay everyone back, but blew it. Now we are asked to believe that once this money is paid back, Jim will go straight.
There will not be a sequel, but we can be sure that, if there were, Jim would not be home changing nappies or grading essays.
