The film is rescued by the strong supporting cast
Director: Rupert Wyatt
Cast: Mark Walhberg, Jessica Lange, John Goodman
Rating: 15
Running time: 111 mins
Release date: 23rd of January 2015
Literature professor and ‘all-in’ gambler, Jim Bennett – played by Mark Wahlberg – is the narrative fulcrum of THE GAMBLER – a refreshing-yet-flawed thriller.
It’s a deeply frustrating film to watch. Locked within is genuine depth there is an insistence, at least in the first third, to pepper the script with quotable monologues and stereotypical gangster caricatures.
Quentin Tarrantino indelibly etched chest puffing, cartoonish bravado into pop-culture consciousness during the 90s. THE GAMBLER is haunted by this influence throughout. Additionally, the film’s brisk, careless pace smothers philosophical nuance and endangers its emotional gravitas.
The film starts sluggishly, spending too much time setting up Jim’s reckless persona. He’s not simply self-destructive – in fact more The Dice Man of George Cockcroft’s titular novel than purely suicidal. He leaves everything to the winds of fate. Either he was destined to be a big winner or the mob will get him. Black or red, the colours of the roulette table, signify the line and he mentions them several times. The gangsters he becomes indebted to thankfully remain functional symbols, while the film avoids a descent into generic crime-thriller territory.
Jim, during an English lecture, concludes that genius is a rare magic, intangible, beyond nature or nurture. While he believes his student, Amy, has it, he does not. Such a polarising mind set has obviously led to his ardent submission to chance. He’ll be rich if he hits the big time, if not, he was never meant to be. In quoting Shakespeare, this grave theme is further extended in his class, “to be or not to be”. The relationship between Jim and Amy is woefully underdeveloped, held back by a paltry twist and thread bare exposition. Even Amy is contingent to Jim’s life – he asks a stranger to thumbs up or down as to whether he should go with her– suggesting his pathology runs deeper than the cycle of material wealth and waste. Amy acts as the glitch in the matrix, a potential cycle breaker and it’s only with her proper introduction that the viewer’s empathy demands Jim’s salvation.
The director, Rupert Wyatt, like his influence, Tarrantino, has a knack for timely and humorous usage of music. He often selects songs with lyrics that directly relate to the context of the scene. For instance, a choir at the school sings ‘Creep’ by Radiohead just as Jim makes a bad move with Amy. Mastering a soundtrack around the content of a scene is an indispensable talent, and certainly Wyatt’s prominent skill. The writer, William Monahan, weaves in a couple of pulpy sub-plots, including the bribing of a basketball player but the limited run time unevenly prioritises pomp over complexity, resulting in rushed, underwritten scenes.
Visually the film doesn’t shine, and there is next to no ingenuity regarding its style or technical inventiveness. Although there is a strong, supporting cast – John Goodman and Jessica Lange stand out – it’s the bullish machismo of Wahlberg that gives THE GAMBLER its engrossing edge. The strength of the narrative is the turning of a largely unlikeable character into one the audience warms to. As Jim starts to believe in life, it’s difficult to not invest in his possible redemption.
Misunderstood by critics and the public alike, THE GAMBLER is a solid film, albeit one hampered by machine-gun pacing and a needless twist that compromises the importance of its key relationship.
Verdict
