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Mark
Wahlberg plays James Bennett (Jim), a single, forty-something College
literature professor, published author, and inveterate high stakes gambler, who
thinks nothing of staking $80K on a midnight game of blackjack. Unsurprisingly,
his gambling addiction doesn't accumulate wealth, it builds mountainous debts,
owed to the sort of creditors who don't sue through the Courts to recover their
money, but resort to rather more barbaric enforcement methods, including Korean
gangsters.
During college lectures, Jim swerves between barely-disguised
contempt and pity for his students, and rues his own lack of genius as a
writer. Jessica Lange plays Jim's wealthy mother, Roberta. The two of them have
a fractious love-hate relationship, and just when he needs her financial
support the most, she pulls the plug on his funding.
John Goodman plays
Frank, a cynical backstreet money lender, who might just be Jim's only chance
of avoiding a premature death at the hands of criminals. |
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Jim starts a
relationship with one of his students, a girl from Ohio named Miss Phillips,
who's the star pupil in his class and half his age. Sadly, she makes no effort
to discourage him from the foolishness of his ways, and Jim never latches onto
the fact that pontoon is a mug's game when big money's at stake...
It's
really hard to like this film, even though it's watchable. The main reason for
this is that Jim Bennett is very far removed from being a sympathetic
character. He is narcissistic, self-obsessed, morose, largely oblivious to the
feelings of others, and his predilection for gambling isn't explored let alone
explained convincingly.
The original movie with
James Caan is a light-year ahead of this movie. The point of the character
being an English lecturer is so the contrast of where he falls to is great
enough that you believe the pain. Pain enough to put his life at risk so
someine else can stop the misery. In this movie you don't really care what
happens to him. |
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| Director |
Rupert
Wyatt |
Mark
Wahlberg |
Jim
Bennett |
| Producer |
Robert
Chartoff |
George Kennedy |
Ed |
| Writing |
William
Monahan |
Jessica Lange |
Roberta |
| Cinematography |
Greig
Fraser |
Brie
Larson |
Amy
Phillips |
| Cert./Runtime |
15 / 111
mins |
John
Goodman |
Frankf |
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