The Gambler monologue - Defeat or Total Victory
Alex Murphy 's Camera Acting at @Mulholland Academy and Dept of Acting.
"Action," check..."objective," check..."circumstance," check...and taking the driver's seat, particularly in this case, a monologue from the 2014 remake of The Gambler, where Jim Benett (played by Mark Wahlberg) consciously created and willingly fell into a self-dug grave of extraordinary circumstances. Without spoiling a movie--which I highly recommend, Mark Walberg's character might technically qualify as a gambling addict, with a propensity for going all in, using his unusual talent to grow a bag of 20,000 dollars to a whopping million, only to lose it all again in the end. He ends up deep in debt with mafiossi who have given him a deadline, whose thugs beat him up just to make sure the message was clear. While the movie grinds down to the last minutes of desperation, with no viable options in sight, an understated monologue defines the very crux of this history of self-destruction, while showing his determination to somehow someday reach his impossible goals and his desire to die if he doesn't reach them. Jim Bennet, a literature professor, sits across his student/love interest in an attempt to justify his chosen path, then gives her the choice to stay with him on this path, or to go. At which point, of course, the audience is at the edge of their seats--at least I know I sure was. And then the move ends. Sublime.