Review: 'The Gambler' starring Mark Wahlberg

There's no real mystery to being a smart gambler. If you're smart you bet with the money you have, not with the money you don't. To do anything else is to court disaster. The worst bettors recognize when they're in a sinking pit but continue to dig themselves further into a hole. By this simple measure, Jim Bennett (Mark Wahlberg) shouldn't be allowed near a bet. The Gambler is an interesting film in that it remakes one of James Caan's finest, but least appreciated performances in the 1974 film penned by James Toback. Toback; his name alone implies a certain cinematic grittiness that this redo never quite captures. It still remains an entertaining vehicle for Wahlberg even if the two films couldn't be more different from a character standpoint.

In Toback's film, Caan's character has this innate need for the high stakes bet; it's ingrained into his very DNA. We don't quite get that from Wahlberg. Jim is more like a rich brat on a bender; the kind who would scream "affluenza" if ever called out on his bullsh*t. It's still fun to watch the speeding train wreck that is his life, but there's no real depth beyond that despite all of the eloquent speeches penned by writer William Monahan. Jim is a literature professor with a single novel to his credit, but he has no desire to see it further than that. One is enough. When his wealthy father (George Kennedy) dies he leaves Jim absolutely nothing. We already know he's desperate; we saw him lose everything in the opening scene. With no prospects as an author, no desire for love, and a deep resentment for his students, Jim turns himself wholly to games of chance.

While director Rupert Wyatt (Rise of the Planet of the Apes) captures the seediness of the backroom poker match and the adversarial slant of blackjack, there's a pretty big problem that he and Monahan can never quite overcome. Jim is a hopeless case right from the start, and there's very little arc to his story. Or at least there isn't a believable one. He continues to dig himself further into debt, borrowing money from dangerous bookies (Michael K. Williams, John Goodman, Alvin Ing) with quirks to spare. Goodman dominates the screen as an eloquent purveyor of wisdom and promised acts of violence. Jim even borrows from his rich mother (Jessica Lange) who has grown fed up with her son's inexplicable actions. His actions don't make much sense to us, either. It all boils down to some vague idea about masculinity, or at least it appears to be the case. When Jim hooks up with Amy (Brie Larson), the one student he thinks has potential, we see it as a potential life line. But that would require she have more than the barest personality. Women rarely get a solid break in movies like this, and Larson definitely doesn't. She and Wahlberg simply don't click.

Wahlberg's better on his own, anyway, and his deeply skeptical attitude about literally everything is one of the film's finer qualities. He's the kind of professor students love to hate; his scorn for them is obvious but he's also brilliant, calls people out on their crap, and is often right about what he espouses. It's what makes his downward spiral so much fun to watch. He just doesn't seem to give a rat's behind about any of it. Wyatt, kind of an odd choice to direct a film like this, manages to ratchet up the tension in every dealt card, every turn of the roulette wheel, aided by Theo Greene's thumping, soulful soundtrack. The Gambler doesn't dig far below the surface of Jim's addiction, but there's still entertainment value in watching a man go down in flames. The house always wins in the end.

 Rating: 3 out of 5