1.20.2008

Croupier (1998)

Clive Owen has made his mark as a superb actor in recent films such as Closer and Children of Men, but I think his ability was just as sure back iin 1998 with this film. I honestly did not sense any of his other characters in this one - a calculating and blank croupier.

We follow a reluctant card dealer back into a casino in London. He wants more than all else to be a writer, but wants his book to have depth and not simply a pay check. He claims that he does not gamble and, in the traditional sense, he does not. He only goes for sure things; things that when received, will not demand any thing of himself in return.

The writing is witty. The actors are not all that glamorous, but they are sharp. There are great turns in the story and we are never sure of results or clashes.

What shook me more than anything in the film is Owen's character's lack of emotion. That alone revealed more than a tone of "taker" but also a truth. When we don't give, we don't feel - and that includes guilt or joy.

IMDB

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