All bets are off

IF you want an example of a film that tries to cover too much ground, The Gambler is it in a nutshell.

While on the one hand it attempts to offer a realistic and gritty look at the seedy underworld and frivolous mentality of gambling addicts, with the other it takes too many liberties to try and present a fast-paced thriller. With unlikeable characters and a poor script, it fails on this front.

In a remake of the 1974 film of the same name (which I did not know existed until after I saw this new version, which apparently was for the best), John Bennett (Wahlberg) is a disinterested and unenthusiastic literature professor by day and a man with an uncontrollable gambling urge by night.

After losing hundreds of thousands of dollars in mere seconds, Bennett is given money by a loan shark to pay his debts. Of course, Bennett gambles that away too, so naturally he ends up in the bad books of criminals and is offered an ultimatum to stump up the cash within a week or face ‘the annihilation of his bloodline’.

The problem is, Bennett is thoroughly unlikeable. Thanks to weak scripting, he comes across as an idiot given far too many last chances in life.

Therefore, when the film is trying to push his struggle to repay his debts, we are sat there hoping he fails and gets his comeuppance for his stupidity.

It becomes a grind watching the film when the audience wants one thing and
the director wants another.

I’d class myself as a big Wahlberg fan and he usually fits any role he’s given with aplomb, but this casting just didn’t work for him. His natural charisma and boyish face contradict his character, who is beaten down about life, in a job he is totally unenthused about and who finds solace solely in the dice.

What the film does get right is portraying the depths that an addict will go to feed an insatiable desire for chance. Director Rupert Wyatt leads a few forays into the moral gutter and despondence of those who can lose everything in just a few seconds,
and as the mental scars grow deeper, Bennett relentlessly sinks further into the abyss and loses all semblance of gratitude and remorse for those trying to help him.

Sadly, these are too few and too brief and are eschewed in favour of being a straight-up thriller. This would have been a much better movie if the pace was slowed right down and it was focussed more on examining the compulsion and masochistic edge which would lead to a man twisting on a 16 in Blackjack with a year’s salary as the stake, but alas, this is the Hollywood era where fistfights and loud bangs are the
nicotine of the masses.

The solitary outstanding performance comes from Bennett’s mother (Lange again justifies her status as one of the industry’s finest golden oldies here), tired and embittered beyond comprehension of bailing her son out but weirdly compelled to help him due to their natural bond. Her scenes are criminally short, but contain considerable gravitas that adds to the feeling that there was a classic in the making here, but poor backroom choices have led to a movie devoid of focus and common-sense.

The set pieces are slick and the visuals are crisp, so there’s nothing inherently wrong with the movie.

It’s just … we’ve seen similar crime capers so many times before. With an opportunity to delve deep into addiction to find what makes one tick, choosing to shun it in favour of a fastpaced drama with an unlikeable lead is disappointing. A missed opportunity.

* Showing in Cineco, Seef II, Saar and Al Jazira Cineplex