The Cooler

"The Cooler" has really divided viewers. Some, definitely not all, are taken with William H. Macy's first-ever sexy role where he shows his buns (and a bit more) as Bernie the Cooler, a key employee at the Shangri-la, a Las Vegas casino a bit shopworn and out of touch with the latest and hottest on the Strip. A cooler is a guy who shows up by the side of a punter on a long winning streak and, somehow, extinguishes his luck merely by hanging around the table and acting like a klutz.

Maria Bello is a cocktail waitress, Natalie, relegated to the low end of the casino where elderly day trippers bet small amounts. Feeling sorry for her, and perhaps a bit attracted, Bernie gets her transferred to the big spender zone where, presumably, tips are better. One thing leads to another and - wow - Macy is, according to a few of my female friends, a heck of a lot sexier than, say, a wannabe babe magnet like Brad Pitt.

Running the casino is Shelley, Alec Baldwin. Shelley has a problem: the casino's investors (a euphemism) want to tear down the place and build a new, modern joint that will pack in the younger high rollers. A sentimentalist at heart, as well as a gangster, Shelley wants Shangri-la - which does turn a profit as he points out to the guys demanding change - to stick it out as the last classy, old style casino. This is the stuff of eyeball to eyeball confrontation.

Natalie is the catalyst for a change in Bernie's luck - and lust. From an initially awkward conjoining, the two fall deeply in love and find they're in synch in the sack. So she's no longer a catalyst, she's the Significant Other.

Bernie has some family issues with his lackluster son and Natalie has to deal with problems with Shelley that would merit a lawsuit about a hostile workplace . Shelley - poor guy - really needs a dedicated cooler, Bernie is the best and he knows, he thinks, how to insure renewed employee dedication.

No Nevada gaming authority or cops here - this casino seems to be in a parallel universe where the honchos make their own rules independent of even the semblance of regulation. There can't really be a Shangri-la like this place in Las Vegas (I'm sort of sure).

Macy delivers a terrific performance as a schlepp who finds he has the heart of if not a lion at least a fierce tabby. Bello handles the shifting moods of her character very well-she's a good actress. And very pretty. Baldwin turns in a predictably dependable job as a tired mobster/businessman who holds true to values rejected by the new generation of Organized Crime wiz kids (one persistent pest sent to remake the casino is dismissed as a "Harvard turd").

All in all, a good movie especially because it showcases Macy in an unexpected role where he demonstrates the depth of his enormous acting ability.

WARNING: Very explicit sexuality and some in-your-face brutality. Not for kids.

7/10.

A "cooler" is a guy who stands next to you in a casino when you are having a winning streak that is suddenly interrupted. It is someone who has such a bad luck that people around him are influenced; he could be pretty important for casino bosses. The cooler here is Bernie and the face of William H. Macy is perfect for him. The casino boss is Shelly in a wonderful performance from Alec Baldwin. Soon Bernie will leave, but not before he has met and fallen in love with Natalie, played by Maria Bello (for me only known from 'Payback' and 'Coyote Ugly'), a third terrific performance. She seems to like him also and suddenly that means Bernie is lucky. This will give, unfortunately for Shelly and therefore himself as well, results on the casino floor. Things are getting complicated.

The story is pretty original and entertaining on itself. A sub-plot that deals with the idea of remodeling the casino into a more modern one, not if it is up to Shelly, gives him a reason to be annoyed and show his more cruel side. Baldwin is at best in these scenes. The performances take the film to the next level. Baldwin won an Oscar nomination and it is pretty clear why. You believe him the entire time, no matter what he does. From Macy we expect a good performance, he is one of the best character-actors out there. I was also pleasantly surprised with Bello, an Oscar nomination would not have been strange here; she is very good, even great in the scenes with Macy. In the end 'The Cooler' is a good film, becoming better through performances, entertaining all the way through.

William H. Macy, Alec Baldwin and Maria Bello give unforgettable performances in 'The Cooler,' a moody tale of high stakes gambling on the Vegas Strip. Baldwin plays Shelley Kaplow, a casino operator steeped in nostalgia who hates what has become of his beloved city and prefers to do business the old-fashioned way (i.e. breaking a leg or two or even rubbing a person out if the situation calls for it). Shelley is also so intensely superstitious that he's hired a 'cooler' to rein in any gambler who starts winning a bit too much against the house. Macy is the 'cooler,' a man named Bernie who's been a loser all his life. It is Shelley's contention that all Bernie has to do is stand next to a gambler on a hot streak and that player's luck will immediately turn cold. And it works. Bernie is like a dark cloud roaming the floor of the casino, bringing despair and depression wherever he goes. The problem for Bernie is that, although he makes a living doing this, he has virtually no self-esteem left. He truly believes that he is a bad luck charm, an impression he carries over into his personal life as well. Enter Natalie Belisario, a sweet, beautiful cocktail waitress at the casino, who is assigned by Shelley to accompany Bernie on his treks around the room. What none of them expect – least of all Bernie and Natalie - is that the two of them will wind up falling in love with each other and that this happy turnabout in Bernie's personal life will extend to the professional arena as well. Bernie's new role at work as a wandering leprechaun, dispensing good luck and fortune in his wake, is not, of course, a positive thing for business. Thus, Shelley feels compelled to step in and wrest control of the situation, any way he can.

The screenplay uses the gambling scene in Vegas as a metaphor for life. The film, written by Frank Hannah and Wayne Kramer and directed by Kramer, shows that achieving happiness is really all about taking chances, laying down our bets and going for the big score even when all the odds are against us. And nothing in the film underscores that theme more than the relationship between Bernie and Natalie. In fact, Bernie's final act is really one giant spin of the wheel that manages to pay off. After he's taken his chance and beaten the house (and not just at the craps table), he is Bad Luck incarnate no more. Yet, in many ways, the script is so heavily symbolic - so rife with contrived allegory and neatly lined-up parallelism – that it almost ends up derailing the film in the second half. On the positive side, Bernie and Natalie make a compelling romantic couple, as she attempts to build up his confidence and make him see his own self-worth. Macy and Bello do a beautiful job capturing the essence of these two lost souls who find strength in each other's weaknesses. In addition, Baldwin paints a chilling portrait of a man who is smooth and suave on the surface, yet so ruthless underneath that he will literally stop at nothing to get what he wants. The dialogue is sharp, abrasive and insightful and the insider view of casino operations is, as always, fascinating to watch. The film also captures the evolutionary struggle Vegas itself has been undergoing over the years. Shelley is like an animal facing imminent extinction, as the Vegas he yearns for – the one run by syndicate money for hardcore gamblers, truly the last outpost in a fading frontier where a fistfight or a gun battle could settle any argument – makes way for the new Vegas of glitzy mega-casinos and family-oriented Disney-esque attractions.

What undercuts the film in the second half is its falling for its own fantastical premise. The idea that one person can spread good or bad luck depending on his mood is fine for a ruse, but when the screenplay itself begins to endorse that view, the film loses both grit and credibility. The final sequences, in particular, have a feeling of desperation to them, as if the filmmakers couldn't come up with a viable ending, so they turned, quite literally, to Lady Luck to get them out of their predicament. The problem, essentially, is that 'The Cooler' starts off as a realistic drama, then wanders off into rueful fantasy. It makes the film more 'clever' in the long run, I suppose - though I, for one, would have preferred a more consistently life-like approach and a more believable resolution.

This is not to in any way denigrate the brilliant performances of the three leads or to minimize the many elements of quality that make up the film. Despite its flaws, 'The Cooler' is a compelling human drama that, if nothing else, will make you think twice before you grab all those winnings off the crap table.

The Cooler is worth seeing just for Alec Baldwin's performance alone. An old style casino boss, his inability and unwillingness to accept the new Vegas sends his volatile nature over the edge. Baldwin has always been an underrated actor- at the start of his career, the big studios made the mistake of trying to market him as a star, rather than as the quality actor that he is. He is also helped by working alongside another great actor, William H Macy, who can do more with a look than most can do with 6 OR 7 pages of dialogue ( See the scene when he realizes Maria Bello is still in his flat ). See this film for the acting. It's good to see that films like The Cooler and 21 Grams are doing well and being recognised - it is a triumph for acting and strong scripts as opposed to continual FX and CGI in modern cinema.

William Macy's Bernie Loots is a full-time loser. His luck is so bad that it rubs off on anybody around him. Lootz is a cooler - a guy who circulates around in a casino run by Alec Baldwin, cooling off winning streaks. If this sounds improbable, you've rented the wrong DVD, because it only gets moreso. This film is a somewhat unique Vegas fantasy film where luck and love play the starring roles. It's a Las Vegas love story, but unlike the disturbing Leaving Las Vegas, it's not a story of hopelessness and redemption, but rather, an adult fairy tale.

Maria Bello turns in an excellent performance as Lootz' romantic interest - the woman who changes everything for him, turning his luck around and, therefore, threatening his livelihood. Alec Baldwin, an obsessed and beleaguered casino manager, will stop at nothing to keep Lootz around.

I'm not a big fan of Vegas, or Vegas-oriented films, but the cast and the unusual themes of The Cooler made it a must see for me. The script was good, and the cinematography was good, but nothing special. Baldwin is terrific and so is Maria Bello. Macy's performance was not quite up to his usual par, and the direction occasionally seemed a little directionless, but all in all, this is an interesting film and well worth seeing.