Croupier [IMPORT]

Rating:
Summary: Yes, Virginia, there really is film noir past the 1940's !
Review: Stylish British flick. Jack Manfred (Clive Owen) has run out of money while struggling to write his first novel. (Shades of Sunset Blvd!)

He has experience as a croupier, a job he loathes, thanks to the influence of his father, a perennial flake who never runs out of big dreams, currently eking a living as a hotel bartender.

Jack is barely on speaking terms with him, alternatively disgusted and bemused by the old man's sleazyness. Nevertheless, he needs a job badly and so when his father informs him of an opening, he re-enters the nightlife world of London casinos, dealing cards to posh, well dressed suckers. "Welcome to the house of addiction." As Jack puts it.

However, unlike his father, Jack NEVER gambles , it's a point of pride with him. So what could possibly go wrong?

The answer of course is everything.

Starting with his first night on the job when he meets his half dressed sultry co-worker, Bella.

Bella: "How do I look?"
Jack : (Voice Over) LIKE TROUBLE!
Jack : "Fine."

We've got three (count 'em !) femme fatales, endearing and deadly in their own way, and cynically beautifull noir-loner speeches that sound as if they came out of Double Indemnity or The Maltese Falcon:

" The world breaks everyone. And afterwards, many are strong at the broken places. Those that will not break, it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave, impartially. If you are none of these things it will kill you too, but there will be no special hurry."

And the plot twists on. . .

Rating:
Summary: Hold on tightly let go lightly
Review: Stylish thriller from the UK, with the instantly likeable Clive Owen in the title role. Offering many twists and turns without insulting the intelligence of the viewer, this movie demands careful attention to appreciate its subtlety; and to know what exactly happens to his girlfriend. . .

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: SLEEPER HIT OF 2000
Review: The best movie of the year. CROUPIER delivers. The writing is grade A and the acting is superb. Clive Owen should've been nominated for the best actor award. He plays Jack Manfred, a writer looking for material for his first novel. Not getting anywhere he takes a job his father lands him at the casino. A life he's all too familiar with.
Looking for a way out Jack gets sucked right back in. Always calculating the odds, Jack is a perfectionist, a natural. Everyone knows when gambling there are no guarantees but what Jack learns is that, that is not even a guarantee. Forget about the overblown action films and see this movie today. Croupier is one of my top 15 films of all time.

Rating:
Summary: Flabbergasted - all about the numbers?!
Review: The fact that 24 out of 25 reviews on this site hold that this movie is excellent causes me to seriously question the the overall competence of the human species.

This movie is not smart. Its attempts at dramatic tension fail. There are so many anomalous scenes that are jarringly bizarre, and yet they don't work together at all. In the last ten minutes, the screenwriter transparently feels a need to cleverly tie back all the characters together in a random collage of uninteresting, undeveloped people. It wants to be Usual Suspects, but is more like... Nothing comes to mind. This movie is horrendously written, bizarrely edited, and will make you long for the two hours back.

Rating:
Summary: Inside info on casinos is well worth the dumb heist story
Review: There are so many good things going for this film -- an intriguing setting, hard-boiled dialogue, stylish direction, perceptive observations about human nature, interesting and sexy characters -- so it's a mighty shame that someone forgot to write a believable and satisfying story. The first half of the film, which deals with the world of casino gambling from the point-of-view of a croupier, is constantly fascinating. I was absorbed by the inner workings of the casino, the different types of gamblers who frequent them, the nocturnal lives of croupiers, and their attitudes towards gamblers. I also found Jack (Clive Owen) to be eminently interesting. I liked the way the screenplay gradually peels away the layers of Jack's character to reveal his core of contradictions (although he strictly refrains from gambling on games of chance, he becomes more and more willing to gamble on much riskier ventures, subsequently anteing up his girlfriend, his security, his life). I should note that although I enjoyed watching Jack, I did not enjoy listening to his narrated thoughts. I realize that the voiceover narration is necessary to convey the intricacies of casino gambling, but I felt it was excessive to the point of distraction. The display of some emotion could have eliminated large chunks of unimportant voiceover exposition. Okay, so Jack is detached, but I don't think he had to be that detached. But this becomes a minor quibble when compared to the bigger distractions that effectively bring about the film's collapse during the second half, which deals with the heist. I just don't get it. How can a screenwriter so perceptive about the psyches of gamblers and croupiers be so dense as to not see all the holes in the plotted heist? How can a director so attentive to the details of casino gambling be so sloppy when handling a casino heist? I have a strong urge to type out all the frustrating shortcomings in the plot and I would do it right now if it wouldn't take me forever. And what's up with that ending? Either I am too stupid to understand all the intricate complexities of the plot or it's a big cheat. I'm betting all my chips on the latter.

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: Entertaining Complex Thriller
Review: This complex thriller is set in London' s gambling world, where an aspiring writer suffering from writer' s block, takes a job as a dealer to support his art. Knowing the dangers of the cards, he is adamant about remaining a professional outsider, but the temptations of the game inevitably swallow him deeper than he could have ever anticipated.

Rating:
Summary: Intrigue, mystery, action, and great character study
Review: This hard boiled British film noir about a croupier in a London casino is destined to become a classic. With his slicked-back black hair and striking good looks, Clive Owen brings a cool, cynical, self-confident elegance to his role as Jack Manfred, a croupier (dealer) in a London casino. He's writing a novel and has been recommended to the job by his father, a South African gambler, who has raised Jack to know all the tricks of the trade. Jack has nothing but contempt for the gamblers who come to the casino to lose each night and expresses his hatred for cheaters. He, himself, takes pride in the fact that he never gambles, but as the plot moves forward, the audience watches him rationalize his own actions in regard to his relationships which pull him deeper and deeper into his own kind of gamble.

Three women play key roles in his life. There is his live-in girlfriend (Gina McKee) who works as a store detective. There is a fellow dealer (Kate Hardie an ex-prostitute and druggie. And, most importantly, there is Alex Kingston (the actress who plays Dr. Corday on ER) in the role as the femme fatale. There is intrigue, mystery, action, a great plot and -- most of all -- a wonderful character study as Jack starts to see himself as a character in his own novel and shares his own internal monologue through the discrete and effective use of voiceovers. Yes. As in other films of this type there are a few details of the plot that are never fully explained. And some of the British dialogue was a little too fast for my American ears. But the casino scenes sparkled, romantic scenes eluded sexual chemistry, and somehow I found myself identifying with Jack and all the workings of his mind. And, like other films in this genre, nothing is quite what it seems. Highly recommended.

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.