Watching "Rounders" is no big deal.
Starring Matt Damon, Edward Norton, and John Malkovich, this savvy but soporific saga about high-stakes poker seethes with classy acting and authentic atmosphere. Sadly, where drama calls on the plot to pay off, "Rounders" cashes in its chips. Unfortunately, this low-key, pretentious potboiler never turns up the heat or the hustle. Coming from a gifted director like John Dahl, "Rounders" qualifies as a major bust. Dahl and freshman screenwriters David (the 2004 "Walking Tall" remake) Levien and Brian ("Ocean's Thirteen") Koppelman develop secondary characters and settings with greater vibrancy than either their hero or his predicament. But even the secondary characters suffer. They register with greater screen presence but less screen time. Evidently, Miramax tamper with the film. Characters enter and exit without explanation and the plot comes and goes in fits and starts. Not only does "Rounders" ante up only intermittent moments of suspense, sex, and romance, the filmmakers also never must enough momentum to keep the story from stalling out when the action should be steaming ahead.
"Rounders" are card sharps. Mike McDermott (Matt Damon of "Good Will Hunting") is a street-wise, young stud working his way through law school with gambling addiction. The movie opens with dramatic potential as he loses $30-thousand dollars of his hard-earned savings to a creepy Russian gambler, Teddy KGD (John Malkovich of "Of Mice and Men") in a tense poker match. Mike's fellow law student and live-in squeeze Jo (Gretchen Mol of " Girl 6") persuades him to reform. Earning his bucks as a lowly route salesman holds little appeal for Mike. Mike has poker in his blood. Late one evening, when he stops by to visit his law school dean, Professor Abe Petrosvky (Oscar winner Martin Landau of "Ed Wood"), he catches them playing a friendly game of low-stakes cards. Mike doesn't have time to examine their hands to know what they're holding. Instead, he can read their faces. "If you can't spot the sucker in your first half-hour at the table," Mike explains, dazzling Abe and his colleagues with his extraordinary skills, "you are the sucker."
Mike is a prodigy at poker. Nevertheless, he lets his more legitimate, status-quo ambitions of getting a law degree interfere with his first lovepoker. Like life, "Rounders" concerns choices. The more that Mike thinks about it, the more that he prefers poker. His blond girlfriend Jo struggles to keep him focused on his legal studies, but neither her love nor her sexuality can overwhelm the thrill that Mike derives from gambling. If you look hard enough, "Rounders" shares some literary similarities with the classic American novel "Huckleberry Finn." Like the carefree, irresponsible Huck who runs off to the river, Mike knows that he shouldn't be gambling. Jo imitates the Widow as she struggles futilely to break him of his poker addiction. "Rounders" takes place in the shady gambling dens of the Big Apple. These hidden lairs lure Mike with the same potency that the river seduced Huck. Unlike "Huckleberry Finn," however, "Rounder" doesn't qualify as a classic.
On the other hand, Mike doesn't have the reliable friend that Huck had in runaway slave Jim. Instead, Mike has Les Murphy (Edward Norton of "American X" at his sleazy best). Aptly nicknamed 'Worm,' Les is just as ill-behaved as the couple of con-artists that hitched a ride with Huck on his raft down the river. Worm gets out of prison no long after "Rounders" unfolds. Mike and Worm had a scam going a couple of years back when their luck eroded. Worm shut his trap, took the rap, and did the time. Now, Mike feels indebted to his old scummy buddy. Worm has no qualms. He cheats everybody, Mike included, and never blinks. Eventually, Jo moves out when she learns that Mike is bluffing her again.
Now, not only does Mike find himself saddled with Worm's staggering $25-thousand dollar debt, but also Worm's unsavory adversaries harass him. Things worsen when Mike finds out that Grama (Michael Rispoli of "The Weather Man"), a vicious thug who pimps for KGB, has brought up Worm note. Grama threatens to smash Worm's arms and legs if he doesn't fork over the fund in 48 hours. Mike and Worm hit the road in search of suckers. Refusing to let Worm win by cheating, Mike vows to get their bucks solely on the strength of his gambling genius. Things are looking up and Mike is winning hand after hand from a bunch of cops when the incorrigible Worm shows up and spoils everything. The cops catch Worm dealing off the bottom of the deck. Confiscating all their dough, the boys-in-blue beat them black and blue. Rather than face an even worse beating from Grama, Worm leaves Mike in the lurch.
Nobody gives a bad performance in "Rounders." Matt Damon evokes more sympathy here than he did in "Good Will Hunting." Indeed, these two Damon characters share similarities. They both display genius in their calling. Mike either wins or loses by knowing facial tick of his opponents. The filmmakers beef up Mike's charisma by letting him provide narration. Mike's character suffers his biggest drawback from passivity. The writers don't give Mike much spunk. Matt Damon breathes life into a pretty, colorless character. The scenarists stretch credibility when Mike allows Worm to use him. Something is missing. For all the card sense that he possesses, Mike shows little common sense.
Good movies require a beginning, middle, and an ending. "Rounders" bogs down in the middle. The movie starts well but stalls out early. The story digresses and wander off onto lateral concerns. "Rounders" doesn't end with a bang, but folds without a sight of hope. Ultimately, "Rounders" lacks both the psychological tension and depth of the 1974 James Caan movie "The Gambler" about a compulsive gambler in the self-destructive those of a wagering addiction. Moreover, "Rounders" never mobilizes the competitive spirit of the classic Steve McQueen poker parable "The Cincinnati Kid."
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