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William H. Macy's Bernie Lootz is a middle-aged guy who oozes a "loser" quality. Employed by Alec Baldwin's mob casino boss, he is used to rub his bad luck onto the high rollers. This is all very well until Lootz falls in love and he reverses the effect he once had because of this newly found "Lady Luck".
Firstly, one assumes that this does indeed happen in reality. However, what we have in Wayne Kramer's film is a relatively original concept which you really have to buy into as a spectator in order to enjoy. Unfortunately, it's not easy to see through the lack of substance the film possessed in terms of script, and by the end, one wonders why the excellent Macy and Baldwin hadn't been used properly in a longer, more detailed and more thought-provoking film based on the same concept. Both play to their respective strengths - Macy as the bumbling loser that he portrayed so well in Boogie Nights (1998) and Fargo (1996), and Baldwin as the brutal and powerful actor whose career roles have hidden these qualities on occasion. Maria Bello does well as Macy's love interest and it seems as if the couple are strangely developing a real relationship before our eyes (one sex scene is authentically awkward and messy between the two contrasting characters), but you always feel like the film looked better on paper than it ever panned out when committed to celluloid. However, the realism is there despite the idea being based on Vegas legend, the acting rawness is present, and Kramer rescues more plus points with his almost effortless stab at being a decent and promising director for the future.
The extras
Zilch. Trailers for OTHER films!
The summary
A watchable film with a "cool" idea which promised so much but only partially delivered. With repeat viewings it may improve but Scorsese's Casino (1995) and Soderbergh's Ocean's Eleven (2001) are seemingly the Vegas-orientated viewings to beat for the time being.
