Crupiê: A Vida em Jogo

An aspiring writer (Clive Owen) is hired as a croupier at a casino, where he realizes that his life as a croupier would make a great novel.

My interest in gambling movies is about average, though I do find them somewhat interesting in the context of organized crime. That was not a major aspect here, though the movie was not without its unexpected death and shady characters. Lead by Clive Owen, it was a decent little story.

I also like that he was not a croupier just for the sake of being a croupier, but also had the idea of writing a book in mind. This then creates the fun of the unreliable narrator... is everything he says true, or is part of this just his fantasy of what would make for a better story?

I liked some things in this movie. One was that it was narrated in the 3rd person by the star (usually it's someone else who narrates in the third person), another is that I saw a world I didn't know about before. Sure, I know about casinos and bosses and workers, but I didn't know how it worked in Britain. In fact, I saw this as a British version of Casino (except without the mob and violence, though there is some violence). Also, Clive Owen makes a great lead as Jack, who goes through changes in his careers as a writer and a croupier. Possibly the best film to come from Britain this year (so far).

Croupier is a film that shouldn't work. It doesn't have a conventional plot, doesn't seem to be about anything, (it's got gambling in it and is set inside a casino, but isn't really about gambling.) and the main character seems to have no clear desire for anything. I'm still wondering why I enjoyed it so much. Perhaps the absence of these motifs that you'd expect in any conventional film is what makes it special, I suspect that they add to it's originality, but what really makes the film work is how completely engaging the main character is made.

Jack Manfred, from his chain smoking to his dry voice-over, is completely engaging as a character, without having to go through any obvious conventionalities that would force the audience into finding him endearing. This is surely a combination of Mike Hodges directorial skill, the script and Clive Owen's acting ability.

The film is essentially a character study, with a front of a gambling film, that examines this character and his relationships with the people in his life, - his girlfriend, boss, father and colleagues, how he sees the world, and how he will cope when presented with certain situations.

It is brought to the screen with quality that demands attention and a score that heightens the atmosphere the film creates and really sets the tone.

CROUPIER (2000) *** Clive Owen, Gina McKee, Alex Kingston, Kate Hardie, Nicholas Ball. British director Mike Hodges returns with his trademark hands-on film noir twisting with Owen – part Connery/part Gibson – as a contemptuous struggling novelist who takes a job as a casino croupier with much disdain for its clientele and the razor's edge trundling of enjoying the afterhours lifestyle while struggling to maintain his identity from his story's semi-autobiographical character. Smartly written by Paul Mayersberg with its pulp fiction heart and soul on display works well until its unfortunately false ending. Owen gives a silky smooth enhancing performance of a man at odds with his life and makes it all look effortless.

"Croupier" is a British neo-noir. It has a detached character (or even better, two characters) who progressively get involved in a shadowy world from an apparently safe beginning, it has voice-overs, lots of artistic and original swearing, a depressing atmosphere and if you don't feel like lighting a cigarette with a Zippo after the movie is over, you're dead. Clive Owen gives an amazing performance as the croupier of the title, who is very conscious of his split personalities: Jack, a gambler, the writer who works in the casino to pay the bills, and Jake, a croupier, a man who enjoys watching his customers losing all his money and who makes sure he's always dealing the cards. In the end, Jack loses and Jake wins. The message is delivered in the least subtle way possible, Hell, the voice-over is practically an intellectual analysis on the movie's meaning, but it works because Jack/Jake is an amazingly engaging character and because the movie is so well directed. The crime plot, although not surprising in the least, develops itself smoothly and contains lots of unexpected sources of humor. "Croupier" is a very stylish and criminally underrated neo-noir that beats the living crap out of most of recent Hollywood releases centering about a big robbery or con. It might be heavy-handed, but it's conscious of where its strenghts lie, and Wilson is great. Why it's so criminally underrated... I don't have the faintest about.