| Reviewer Roundup |
| 1. |
 | Susan Granger |
| review follows |
|  |
| 2. |
| Harvey Karten |
| read the review |
| --- |
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Review by Susan Granger
3 stars out of 4
This compelling crime caper by British director Mike
Hodges is what low-budget, independent film-making is all about. Back
in the '70s, Mike Hodges did the critically acclaimed "Get Carter,"
starring Michael Caine, and this is in the same vein. It's based on a
script by Paul Mayersberg, who years ago wrote one of my all-time
favorites sci-fi films, "The Man Who Fell to Earth." Clive Owen plays
Jack Manfred, a frustrated, aspiring novelist whose father (Nicholas
Ball) gets him an interview for a job as a croupier at the Golden Lion
Casino in London. And why not? He has the hand of a conjurer - or an
experienced card player. Reluctantly, he takes the job at "the house
of addiction," philosophizing, "You have to make a choice in life: be
a gambler or a croupier - and live with your decision." And Jack is
coldly obsessed with watching people lose since, after all, a good
customer is a consistent loser. One of the most intriguing losers is a
beautiful gambler (ER's Alex Kingston) from South Africa with whom he
has an affair, deceiving his lover (Gina McKee), a store detective who
believes Jack's high-tension job has made him into a miserable
zombie. He also becomes involved with a fellow croupier (Kate Hardie).
"I'm not an enigma," Jack explains. "I'm a contradiction." Jack's
ultimate aim is to become totally detached (i.e.: "The croupier had
reached his goal - he no longer heard the sound of the ball.").
Jack's behind-the-scenes casino adventures and the various scams are
intriguing but his hackneyed internal monologues about the book he's
writing soon become tedious. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10,
"Croupier" is a clever, stylish, cynical 7. "Gambling," we're told,
"is about not facing reality, not counting the odds." But, ah, the con
artists!
Copyright © 2000 Susan Granger
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