ROUNDERS
A movie review by Joe Barlow
(c) Copyright 1998
STARRING: Matt Damon, John Malkovich, Martin Landau, Edward Norton,
Gretchen Mol
DIRECTOR: John Dahl
WRITERS: David Levien and Brian Koppelman
RATED: R (for violence and adult language)
YEAR: 1998
SEEN AT: Waverly Place, Cary NC
RATING: ** (out of a possible *****)
"Rounders," the new film from John Dahl, tells the complex story of two young men enslaved by the lure of professional gambling. Mike McDermott (Matt Damon) is an ambitious young law student who swears off high-stakes wagering after he loses a semester's tuition on a single hand of poker. But when his aptly-named friend Worm (Edward Norton), a recently paroled convict, finds himself in serious financial trouble, the loyal Mike agrees to come out of retirement and help him earn the $15,000 he desperately needs to pay off his bad debts. With Mike acting as the yin to Worm's slimy yang, the two card wizards set off to conquer the poker tables of Atlantic City. They know all the tricks, and though Mike prefers to play "straight" poker (ie, no cheating), Worm is not above stacking the deck or dealing from the bottom. That's one of their major differences: Mike approaches poker as an art form, while Worm's point of view is much less noble.
Matt Damon's performance radiates warmth and sunshine, loyalty and charismatic charm. His character is obviously intelligent and kind- hearted: the only reason he returns to gambling is to assist a friend in need. He seems genuinely interested in his law studies when we meet him, and positively worships his girlfriend Jo (Gretchen Mol). What most astounded me was how a sweet guy like this could surround himself with such monsters. It's so painfully obvious that Worm is a user, with no interest in anything but Mike's card-playing abilities, that we wonder why such a smart young man can't see this for himself. The smarmy Jo, meanwhile, is constantly whining or striding away from Mike with her nose upturned, as though she believes she's far too good for him; never once does she demonstrate any degree of kindness or affection. When she leaves midway through the movie, I rejoiced... and was quite surprised to learn that Mike (and the film) considered her departure a bad thing.
"Rounders" is a disappointing tale, more concerned with creating individual moments rather than a consistent tone. The story's pulse is only discernible during the card-playing scenes, which are fascinating and masterfully constructed; the rest of the film tries to involve us in plot details which are not only irrevelant but actually boring. These include Mike and Jo's tepid romance, Mike's steadily declining interest in his school work, Worm repeatedly getting himself in trouble and asking Mike for help, etc.
The movie also makes poor use of its first-rate cast, apart from Damon. What's Martin Landau, one of America's greatest living actors, doing in this film? The answer: not much. Landau, who won as Oscar for his portrayl of Bela Lugosi in Tim Burton's "Ed Wood," plays a kindly old mentor, the type always present in movies like this. Although his performance is fine, he doesn't really do anything except give Damon some money. John Malkovich, another fine actor, portrays a Russian cardshark named KGB in the film's opening and closing scenes; unfortunately, the performance is so paper-thin and insubstantial that Damon could've defeated him merely by blowing hard. In addition, Malkovich's Russian accent is laughable: I kept expecting him to announce, "Time to look for Moose and Squirrel, Natasha!"
The end of the film is supposed to leave us feeling cheerful and uplifted, but a true happy ending would depict Mike and Worm checking themselves into "Gamblers Anonymous." The film's glorification of its subject matter, coupled with the fact that Jo and Mike appear to reconcile at the end of the story, caused me to bury my head in my hands and weep silently until the end credits began to roll.
E-Mail: jbarlow@earthling.net Joe Barlow on Film: http://www.ipass.net/~jbarlow/film.htm
If you'd like to receive new film reviews by e-mail, please write to the above address and ask to be put on my mailing list. Or, you can subscribe directly from my web page. Thanks.
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews