Croupier

Rating:
Summary: A witty sparkling gem of a film.
Review: Jack is a loser by all measures of success; a failed author, unemployed, lives off his girlfriend's expense and ends up selling his only possession - a sports car given to him by dad. But Jack does have a talent: he's a gifted Croupier (a dealer - an attendent who collects and places bets). When his gambler/con-artist father arranges an interview with the head of a Casino, Jack reluctantly agrees only because he needs the money. But once behind the gaming tables, Jack is in his element and reigns supreme. Here every gambler loses because the odds are always stacked against them, and Jack "never gambles." The rush Jack gets from his job energizes everything else in his life and becomes the inspiration for the Novel he always wanted to write, but soon Jack will experience what he's always known: "hold on tightly, let go lightly" - everything has a consequence. Since he is no longer dependent on his girlfriend Marion, she feels threatened. His success has also made him a target of temptation, and the man who "never gambles" may become the biggest gambler of them all. The acting by Gina McKee as Marion is outstanding, and Clive Owen, who also narrates this film in the third person, was perfectly cast as Jack, the Croupier. He plays the role with a detached, cool and calculated sense of irony that makes the character facinating to watch. When Owen made this film he was a virtual unknown, but three years later fortune would find him as "the driver" in series of excellent short films sponsored by BMW as part of a marketing strategy for the auto maker. And now he's been nominated by the Academy!

Rating:
Summary: Dark, Brooding and Fabulous
Review: I am not one to normally write reviews, but I felt I really had to,even though there are over 40 people who have written in about this movie alread. It's a great movie I had no knowledge of until a few weeks ago, and it's a perfect little movie that is just thrilling to discover. Clive Owen is utterly perfect as our "hero." Clive is so compelling, it's like we got sucked into this house of torment along with him. His staring bright eyes convey someone who is searching into the souls of those in his life, partly to try connect with people and partly to study them, find their weaknesses, and exploit them for his own use.

This ain't no happy movie, but it's well worth watching, and then rewatching. It's a movie most of us missed the first time around, but luckily with Clive Owen becomming more well known, it may get a second life.

Rating:
Summary: Clive Owen Rocks It Kenny Rogers AKA The Gambler Style
Review: Clive Owen plays an apithetic croupier who also just happens to be a writer who has writer's block. He apparently worked in a casino before and starts working in the gaming industry again as he has nothing to write about. There's a small heist that he vaguely becomes a part of...but the plot is really secondary to the performance of Clive Owen.

His smug detachment from the people around is so well done that you both love and hate his character. He is annoyed by the many regular people around him just pissing their lives and money away. He knows he's just like them, but at least he realizes it. Owen's performance is captivating and makes 'Croupier' one of the best movies you've never seen.

Rating:
Summary: The Cool Objective Protagonist
Review: Super cool. Don't buy this expecting some breezy heist film. I won't bore you with details (the synopsis tells you the basic story). I was impressed with the mood created, the characters at times greedy, perverse, cynical and lovelorn. And yes, addicted. And of course the acting. Top notch. Above all is Clive Owen as Jack, the detached writer coolly observing those around him but not fooling himself into thinking he was really much different. Just a little smarter. Most enjoyable.

Rating:
Summary: I am SO frustrated!
Review: I watched this movie and really, really, really loved it - except for 2 things: the flat response of the lead character during and after viewing the dead body of someone very important to him, and THE END. I mean, what? I just didn't get it at all, at all. Neither did 2 people with whom I was watching the movie. Afterwards, we went to these reviews and other stuff online about the film, looking for a friggin' explanation of what happened - and flat out couldn't find enough information for it all to make sense to me. Nobody wants to be the spoiler, so nobody told enough for me to figure out how the heist ended. Did they get away or were they arrested by the Asian man's bodyguards? Why the fake black eye? How did the father end up where he was in the final scene? Huh, huh. Huh??? Would some kind soul please email me and explain all this. It's disturbing my sleep.
Thanks: [e-mail]


Rating:
Summary: Stunning lead performance in otherwise average film
Review: This is basically a decent movie held together by an absolutely stunning lead performance. In fact, Clive Owen is so spectacular as Jack Manfred, a writer who once again takes a job as a croupier in an English casino, a job he has despised in the past, that he actually makes what would otherwise be a decent film a semi-great one. The film in the end fails to achieve true greatness, primarily because of narrative difficulties and a gimmicky plot twist near the end that leaves an unpleasant taste in one's mouth with its triviality. But that is the director and writer's fault, and not Owen's. His character, gradually getting sucked into the world he abandoned, suffers a spiritual crisis as he becomes increasingly detached and evolves into a dispassionate and detached observer. There is a plot, but to be honest the story completely failed to hold my attention and I'm not sure it deserved my time. Clive Owen, on the other hand, is a different matter altogether.

Although this is one of the most riveting performances by an actor in recent years, Owen was sadly not eligible for an Academy Award nomination because the film was shown on Dutch TV before nominations were made. Because it was a relatively low budget film that received scant notice in the United States, showing almost exclusively in art houses, it is entirely possible that Owen might not have been acknowledged with a nomination even if he had been eligible, but it would have been interesting to find out. What is marvelous about his performance is the way he manages to appear completely dispassionate while at the same time containing powerful emotional reserves. He seems an intensely passionate individual who has completely internalized his passions. Incredibly, Owen's best moments are when he is working at a croupier, speaking only as the demands of his trade require, while we listen to his narrating what he is observing, apparently a narration that forms the text of the book he is writing. I heard Owen interviewed on NPR and there he stated that he insisted on doing the narration first, and then they would shoot the scenes with the narration playing, allowing him to express facially what the words articulate. Owen has great eyes, and he recalls the old expression that the eyes are the windows of the soul.

If anyone other than Clive Owen had the lead in this film, it would almost certainly have been, at best, average. As it is, his performance drives the entire film to something very nearly great. One of the problems that I have always had with auteur theory is that in many films it will lead one to privilege the director as the creative force, while in many cases the director clearly plays a subservient role. Sometimes that crucial figure is the producer, sometimes the writer. In at least one case, THE LIMEY (and without meaning to take anything away from director Stephen Soderbergh), editor Sarah Flack has as much claim as anyone to claim the title "auteur." In this film, that distinction belongs to Owen.

For some reason of which I am unaware, this film was long unavailable in the United States in any form. I missed it when it first hit the theaters in 1999, so I was delighted when I discovered that it was finally available in DVD. That lack of availability has led, I believe, to Clive Owen being less well known than he deserves. He did go on to make a celebrated series of BMW commercials directed by major film directors such as Ang Lee, John Frankenheimer, Tony Scott, John Woo, and several cutting edge action directors, and memorably appeared in Robert Altman's GOSFORD PARK and another Mike Hodges film BETTER OFF DEAD. This summer saw him in the unfortunate KING ARTHUR in the title role. The next year or so will feature Owen in a variety of releases, which will hopefully bring him more of the notice he deserves.

Rating:
Summary: Wow!
Review: There have been a few movies that just blindsided me, far exceeding my expectation and leaving me in a state of daze. Pulp Fiction was one. Then there was Trainspotting. I missed the release of Croupier in 2000 because I was on the road all the time, but I got to watch it on DVD just now. Wow!

Rating:
Summary: Quintessential Guy's Movie.
Review: Well, of course their are no car chases (that's a joke) but this is a film most men will love. What there is in the film is an excellent plot that's so clever it ought to have a PhD from Harvard. I guarantee that the ending will surprise you. The lead character's travails are fascinating and will cause many a man to feel envy. I personally never thought much about what it would be like to be a dealer, or croupier, before I saw it but I gained an honest appreciation for what their jobs entail by watching it. Its also a film for writers.