THE GAMBLER
Reviewed by Harvey Karten, Ph.D. Legacy Releasing Director: Karoly Makk Writer: Katharine Ogden & Charles Cohen and Nick Dear Cast: Michael Gambon, Jodhi May, Polly Walker, Dominic West, Luise Rainer, Johan Leysen, John Wood
When Al Gore invented the Internet, he gave humankind its greatest boon since Carrier knocked out the first air conditioner in 1902. The Web is so addicting that we have no difficulty understanding the willingness of its devotees to spend 18 hours a day staring at the screen. Cigarette addiction: easy. Nicotine and tars are more compelling than cocaine. Alcohol? It's in the genes. But gambling? How to comprehend people's desire to throw away their rent money when the house always wins? Go to Atlantic City at any time of day or night and just try to get a place at one of the one- arm bandits! People of all ages, often of modest means, plug away trying to line up the lemons in a row. From Monte Carlo to Vegas and throughout most of the Far East, croupiers keep busy raking in the money. Finally, with Hungarian director Karoly Makk's exquisitely photographed production, "The Gambler," we have the answer. People gamble because they want to lose. The desire is unconscious but given the fact that we're all loaded with a lifetime of guilt feelings, losing money rapidly in an exciting environment provides us with redemption. Who better to describe the influence of suffering and guilt than the Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky?
Makk's movie about an episode in the life of Dostoyevsky, "The Gambler" is no long, rambling tale of the strange lifestyle of speculators. This has already been done by Robert Altman in his 1974 "California Split," which demonstrated the emptiness of winning--a muddled story with a grotesque soundtrack. Instead Makk weaves an actual account of a meeting that the Russian writer (played by Michael Gambon) has at the age of 45 with a 20-year-old stenographer, Anna Snitkina (Jodhi May) with the fictional tale that Dostoyevsky is dictating to the lovely scribe. The two, separate stories are braided together so seamlessly that we in the audience are caught up in the same passion that the innocent, shy young woman feels as she reports for work day after day, giving free rein to her fantasies about the imagined personalities. Anna soon catches on that the book is actually a thinly veiled description of the author's experiences despite the contrast she sees between his cluttered St. Petersburg digs and the gorgeous, sun-drenched streets and casino in the German town of Roulettenberg.
As Dostoyevsky, prodded compulsively by his enraptured steno, dictates away at a yarn about young Alexei (Dominic West--as the thinly veiled Dostoyevsky), who is tutor to the children of the General (John Wood) and who falls in love with the General's charming and stunning daughter Polina (Polly Walker)--Anna fantasies herself as the sophisticated Polina, imagining the middle-aged Dostoyevsky as the dashing Alexei.
Adding considerably to the story's fascination is the contract which the author had, in desperation, signed with his publisher. In return for a then much-needed sum of money, Dostoyevsky is bound to turn in a novel of 160 pages within 27 days. If he fails to do so, the publisher would own rights to everything the author should produce for the rest of his life. This race against time adds a melodramatic flourish to the enterprise, while it puts Anna--who had been virtually engaged to a boring but rising young government official--in the position of a gambler herself. Should the writer not finish the manuscript on time, Anna would not receive the 50 rubles compensation she so desperately needs.
Michael Gambon is astonishing in the wonderfully developed role of a self-destructive genius, afflicted with epilepsy, a penchant for alcohol, and a calamitous compulsion to gamble away his money. In Anna's role, the gently beautiful Jodhi May frames the picture, wandering sadly in search of the man who had become her husband, afflicted with periods of extreme poverty, but remaining faithful to the man who showed her how to live.
Not Rated. 97 minutes. (C) 1999 by Harvey Karten
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