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The Cooler is worth seeing just for Alec Baldwin's performance alone. An old style casino boss, his inability and unwillingness to accept the new Vegas sends his volatile nature over the edge. Baldwin has always been an underrated actor- at the start of his career, the big studios made the mistake of trying to market him as a star, rather than as the quality actor that he is. He is also helped by working alongside another great actor, William H Macy, who can do more with a look than most can do with 6 OR 7 pages of dialogue ( See the scene when he realizes Maria Bello is still in his flat ). See this film for the acting. It's good to see that films like The Cooler and 21 Grams are doing well and being recognised - it is a triumph for acting and strong scripts as opposed to continual FX and CGI in modern cinema.

Too many movies set in Las Vegas have gone along with the glitzy image that we always see, so it's good to see one take a grittier approach. William H. Macy plays a gambling jinx who falls in love right before he's supposed to leave the city, so there's the issue of how this might affect things. Some people might observe how the movie looks at this relationship, but I noticed how it looked at chance, especially with what happens at the end. Overall, I view it as one the many movies from a new generation of directors (sort of like what got released in the late '60s and early '70s). Definitely worth seeing, with a very effective script and all. Also starring Alec Baldwin, Maria Bello, Shawn Hatosy and Ron Livingston.

A "cooler" is a guy who stands next to you in a casino when you are having a winning streak that is suddenly interrupted. It is someone who has such a bad luck that people around him are influenced; he could be pretty important for casino bosses. The cooler here is Bernie and the face of William H. Macy is perfect for him. The casino boss is Shelly in a wonderful performance from Alec Baldwin. Soon Bernie will leave, but not before he has met and fallen in love with Natalie, played by Maria Bello (for me only known from 'Payback' and 'Coyote Ugly'), a third terrific performance. She seems to like him also and suddenly that means Bernie is lucky. This will give, unfortunately for Shelly and therefore himself as well, results on the casino floor. Things are getting complicated.

The story is pretty original and entertaining on itself. A sub-plot that deals with the idea of remodeling the casino into a more modern one, not if it is up to Shelly, gives him a reason to be annoyed and show his more cruel side. Baldwin is at best in these scenes. The performances take the film to the next level. Baldwin won an Oscar nomination and it is pretty clear why. You believe him the entire time, no matter what he does. From Macy we expect a good performance, he is one of the best character-actors out there. I was also pleasantly surprised with Bello, an Oscar nomination would not have been strange here; she is very good, even great in the scenes with Macy. In the end 'The Cooler' is a good film, becoming better through performances, entertaining all the way through.

William Macy's Bernie Loots is a full-time loser. His luck is so bad that it rubs off on anybody around him. Lootz is a cooler - a guy who circulates around in a casino run by Alec Baldwin, cooling off winning streaks. If this sounds improbable, you've rented the wrong DVD, because it only gets moreso. This film is a somewhat unique Vegas fantasy film where luck and love play the starring roles. It's a Las Vegas love story, but unlike the disturbing Leaving Las Vegas, it's not a story of hopelessness and redemption, but rather, an adult fairy tale.

Maria Bello turns in an excellent performance as Lootz' romantic interest - the woman who changes everything for him, turning his luck around and, therefore, threatening his livelihood. Alec Baldwin, an obsessed and beleaguered casino manager, will stop at nothing to keep Lootz around.

I'm not a big fan of Vegas, or Vegas-oriented films, but the cast and the unusual themes of The Cooler made it a must see for me. The script was good, and the cinematography was good, but nothing special. Baldwin is terrific and so is Maria Bello. Macy's performance was not quite up to his usual par, and the direction occasionally seemed a little directionless, but all in all, this is an interesting film and well worth seeing.

Maria Bello is mesmerizing in this movie! After I watched this for the first time, I couldn't get her beauty and her character out of my head. She has caught my eye once before on the movie "Payback" with Mel Gibson, and then this movie and the other movies I have seen with her in were somewhat disappointing. Yet, in "The Cooler", she gives the kind of performance that should bust her career wide open, but I don't think it ever happened, which is very sad. Looking at many of the leading ladies in the current state of movies, and all I see is perfect stars that don't have any depth of character. Yes, I know many actress are doing good stuff, but Maria has something special, something thats hard to explain, but there is no doubt in my mind that she has a lot of it. In conclusion to my boast of Maria Bello...I truly believe that a woman with her talent and beauty should be the lead actor in movies! I think the era of Julia Roberts is over...all hail Maria Bello! ;)