THE GAMBLER
Mark Wahlberg as Jim Bennett / Brie Larson as Amy Phillips / John Goodman as Frank / Jessica Lange as Roberta / Michael K. Williams as Neville Directed by Rupert Wyatt / Written by William Monahan |
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The job of the film critic, I think, is to relay what a film is trying to do and whether or not it has succeeded in those very aims. Reviewing
a remake adds another layer of complexity, especially when one’s fond
memories of the original film come to the forefront.
THE GAMBLER is, of course, a remake of the critically lauded 1974
James Caan film, which was a semi-autobiographical take on writer
James Toback’s life. Memories
of the first film undoubtedly cast a large, omnipresent shadow over this
new iteration, but unlike so many witless and lazily scripted remakes, THE
GAMBLER makes a concentrated effort to not just simplistically regurgitate
its antecedent. Instead, it
pays homage to the source material while intrepidly going forward with its
own fresh take on the 1974 film. That
is, alas, what all good remakes should aspire to do. Yes,
people
place the Caan version on a very high and cherished pedestal.
Yes, DAWN OF THE
PLANET OF THE APES director Rupert Wyatt, initially at least,
seems like an ill fit for this type of genre film.
And, yes, Mark Wahlberg definitely doesn’t have the same type of
grizzled and cynically detached edge that Caan did before him in the lead
role. Yet, Wyatt himself
keeps everything moving at a swift and assured pace while making THE GAMBLER a quietly stalwart and stylish drama.
He seems to know his way around the characters and the dicey moral
conundrums they find themselves in. Beyond
that, THE GAMBLER’s ace up its sleeve is William Monahan, who previously
penned THE DEPARTED for Martin Scorsese,
and his tough as nails, razor sharp, an uncommonly eloquent dialogue
(laced with almost poetic usage of vulgarity) gives the remake an added
layer of gritty, sinister, and lived-in character.
Wahlberg
plays a university literature professor named Jim Bennett that lives a
seedy and self-destructive existence beyond the classroom in underground
gambling clubs. He’s a
passionate and verbose lecturer, but his real obsession is his chronic
gambling addiction, which has caused no end of disturbing – and
potentially life threatening – trouble for him.
He even seems to take losing unpardonable amounts of money in
stride, even though it means a possible death sentence to those he owes
money to. And he does owe
hundreds of thousands to the Asian mob and a gangster named Neville
(played with low key menace by Michael Kenneth Williams). Realizing that
he’s in one really tough predicament – and knowing that he can’t pay
off both parties at the same time – Jim turns to another crime kingpin,
Frank (a sensationally effective John Goodman), which has added more
treacherous financial complications for his life.
Making Jim’s life grimmer is his estranged relationship with
his mother Roberta (a fiery and headstrong Jessica Lange) and with one of his
students Jessica (Brie Larson) that he finds himself falling for. THE
GAMBLER is an intimate and reasonably engrossing chronicle of a deeply
disturbed, troubled, and mostly immoral man that’s become sickeningly
addicted to his gambling disease. You
kind of just want to slap Jim across the face: Here’s a man that’s educated, intelligent, has a respectable
high paying job and affluent family, but he cares little for family or his
career while engaging in nightly gambling sessions.
He’s so intrinsically damaged on a pure psychological level that
he rarely even appears upset when he loses money.
Losing acts as a catalyst to help prop up his addiction.
Monahan’s shrewd scripting understands all of this in its
attempts to never soft-pedal the character or make egregious attempts make
us like this man. Jim is a
selfish son of a bitch that lies, steals, and then lies and steals some
more. I love the fact that
THE GAMBLER doesn't pathetically try to sugarcoat this cretin.
Everyone in this film’s world seems corrupt in one form or
another, making the boundary between protagonist and antagonist cleverly
and compellingly opaque. Casting
is of the utmost importance here, and Wahlberg has been getting no end of
critical flack for his performance in THE GAMBLER.
Once you get over the fact that he perhaps seems like an ill fit to
make a plausible university professor with an intellectual chip on his
shoulder, then Wahlberg’s inherent strengths as an actor – when he’s
allowed to bring them to the forefront – shines through. His intense, internalized,
and low simmering raw edge that he brings to parts suits Jim rather
well. Wahlberg is also
sensational at playing compulsive minded and unethical jerks that hurt
themselves and those around them in equal measure.
Like the script, Wahlberg never goes out of his way to soften
Jim’s rough edges; he's a
character that takes every seedy low road or path possible to get ahead,
even if it means betraying his own mother. Wahlberg will never replace the iconic James Caan, but he’s
confidently on-point throughout most of THE GAMBLER. The
other performances are uniformly well rounded as well, especially Lange as
Jim’s heartbroken, but mad-as-hell mother than that displays years of
internalized fury over her son’s carelessness with stone cold stares and
precise body language. John
Goodman has never been as good in a film role in years as he is as
Frank. He plays him with such a coldly calculating and hypnotically frightening
impassiveness. Goodman also
knows how to make Monahan’s f-bomb riddled dialogue really sing with an
impressive and imposing level of menace. Some have commented that Monahan’s dialogue exchanges and
monologues seem almost too on-the-nose and obtrusively stylish.
Yet, in an age when so many countless films have cookie-cutter
dialogue that sheepishly propels stories forward it’s a most welcome
relief to have words with a sophisticated weight and color to
them. Of
course, THE GAMBLER does have issues, especially a rather shoehorned in
love story between Jim and Brie’s student, which never really pays off
– nor is it developed – as fully as it should have been (that, and it’s
never completely explained why a good natured girl like Jessica would
spend her nights working as a cocktail waitress in a crime riddled Korean
nightclub, not to mention why she even takes a liking to Jim).
The film’s final scene seems a tad too falsely optimistic,
especially considering the story that preceded it.
Most of THE GAMBLER builds itself on not being audience friendly
and there are instances when you really don’t know what’s going to
happen to Jim with all of his scandalously unethical choices.
This film deserved a deeply cynical conclusion to match its deeply
cynical soul, but the ending here is not really earned at all.
It feels like a cheat. THE GAMBLER still works, though, as an effectively well-oiled and executed retooling of the 1974 original. Wyatt also demonstrates his versatility here as a filmmaker in moving from a sci-fi action thriller to something more quietly rendered and measured. I could also listen to Monahan’s wonderfully crisp, lyrical, and stone cold dialogue exchanges forever. THE GAMBLER won’t replace its forerunner, nor is it a better film than it. It is, though, an uncommonly confident remake that establishes its own unique personality while echoing the treasured film that inspired it. You should definitely ante up and see it. |
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