The Gambler was a fairly basic story. The film is a remake of a 1974 James Caan movie by the same name. There isn’t a whole lot more than meets the eye, but sometimes it’s good to have a popcorn flick that feels real while not letting you get too invested. Sometimes you are looking for a movie that isn’t very believable in your everyday life, but could still be realistic if you sat back and thought about it. The Gambler is that film. Wahlberg stars as Jim Bennett, an English 101 university professor/gambling addict. He is not a happy man, evidenced by his lack of success in the gambling arena and his less-than-enthusiastic persona when teaching his students. We first meet Jim at an underground casino. He brings $100,000 in cash and proceeds to lose it all in one sitting while playing Blackjack. He then borrows money and loses it all, too. Before the movie is even 15 minutes old, Jim is $240,000 in debt, with no real hope of getting out. We learn his gambling addiction is real and is a driving force in his life.

Jessica Lange (Blue Sky, Tootsie) plays Jim’s mother. It is a throwaway role, and sadly, Lange wasted her efforts on this movie when anyone could have sufficed as Jim’s overbearing mom. He lives at home because he has no money to his name. Whatever money he does earn through his teaching job seems to go straight to his gambling addiction. He can’t seem to help himself. Even on a couple of occasions, he heads straight to the underground casinos when he gets money to pay off his debt. He becomes connected with a couple of loan sharks, first a man named Neville (Michael K. Williams – television’s The Wire, 12 Years a Slave) and then a man named Frank (John Goodman – Flight, Argo). Both are willing to loan Jim money under certain circumstances. But, just like any lender, they want the full payment plus interest. And if Jim cannot deliver, it will cost him his life (or even more). He ends up owing both of these men significant sums of money, in addition to the casino owner we meet in the film’s first 10 minutes. Each time he has a chance to pay off his debts, he cannot help but wager it in the hopes of getting more. This is a focal point of the movie and emphasizes that his addiction is both beyond his control and his means to sustain life for himself.

It’s an agonizing film at times. We don’t know whether to like Jim or not. He can come across as a real ass sometimes. And it’s not like he’s had to fight his way to be successful. His family comes from money. Jim’s mother has a tennis court and a pool at his house. Jim is a published author, albeit self-admittedly unsuccessful. He seems to have given up on that dream. He does not like his job teaching the lowest-level English class at his university, even telling his students that the only reason they are in his class is that they have to be. He can be passionate at times, but some of his lessons are more life-oriented than content-related. He’ll end class early at other times, abruptly telling his students they are kicked out. It was odd for a professor who didn’t care much about his students to still know all their names. I was a teacher for many years and a student for many more. A teacher who cares quickly learns their students’ names as fast as possible. A teacher who doesn’t care as much does not. At college, there is even less incentive to learn students’ names. In any case, this is a lesser point.

He knows two students quite well: Lamar (Anthony Kelley), a junior basketball player who is the team’s star and has a promising career, but is hiding a knee injury. Though he is told to stay another year (to help his draft position), he wants to go pro immediately because he is hiding a bad knee. He wants to secure that first-round contract with guaranteed money before discovering that he has a bad knee. For whatever reason, he seeks Jim’s advice. Lamar has had Jim as a teacher for numerous courses in his college career. The other student of note in his class is Amy (Brie Larson – The Spectacular Now, Rampart), the one student Jim sees as having promise. She also works at the underground casino Jim frequents, though the two do not speak of it.

The Gambler is not a heavy drama in the sense that gambling addiction ruins lives. It’s just not that deep. It by no means makes light of the subject, but it’s just not that heavy. Wahlberg doesn’t have everything figured out as Jim. There are plenty of scenes of Jim in a casino, losing significant amounts of money after large amounts of money, with no means of stopping himself. The payoff was decent. I get how things came together between the characters, but I left the movie uncertain about what Jim learned and what he didn’t. I could buy into the idea that he was a changed man after this movie (because of a couple of unique circumstances that weren’t present at the start of the film). I’m willing to buy into them. I think conquering an addiction can be very difficult, but you start to see the situation a little differently when others become victims. That is sort of what happens. I’m cool with it.

The Gambler movie is better than its scores reflect. Nevertheless, I’m glad I saw it. You probably will be too.

Plot 8.5/10
Character Development 8/10
Character Chemistry 7.5/10
Acting 7.5/10
Screenplay 7/10
Directing  7.5/10
Cinematography 7.5/10
Sound 7.5/10
Hook and Reel 8/10
Universal Relevance 8.5/10 (gambling addiction is real…especially with the ease of online gambling)
77.5%

C+

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