The Gambler, a remake of the 1974 film starring James Caan which I have not seen, is another film dealing with addiction and inner demons. This time, as the title obviously states, our protagonist’s (played by Mark Wahlberg) addiction is gambling and the reasons behind his willingness to go all in and his acceptance when he loses everything seem to stem from his upbringing, including his recently deceased grandfather (George Kennedy) who passes away in the film’s opening scene and his wealthy Beverly Hills mother (Jessica Lange).
The last time screenwriter William Monahan wrote a movie in which Wahlberg starred it was The Departed and the result was the actor’s first Oscar nomination. While The Gambler won’t likely find Wahlberg earning a third nom, Monahan was definitely crafted a script playing to Wahlberg’s strengths as the best parts of this film come when Wahlberg is going full steam ahead, delivering witty lines at a quick clip, creating a character destined to lose, yet you root for him anyway. In fact, this is both the film’s blessing and curse as director Rupert Wyatt (Rise of the Planet of the Apes) has tacked on a two minute ending that feels entirely disingenuous to everything that comes before it. While this doesn’t entirely ruin the film it would have been so, so, so much better if these final minutes didn’t exist.
Wahlberg stars as Jim Bennett, an English professor who finds himself a quarter of a million in debt to the owner of an underground gambling ring (Alvin Ing) and the gangster (Michael Kenneth Williams) he borrowed from to help cover that debt. However, when Jim borrows to cover a debt he’s not really borrowing anything, he’s just gaining more money to blow at the next table.
Realizing it’s either his life or he pays off the debt, Jim faces a decision of going to his mother for money or asking a scary-as-hell loan shark played by the always impressive John Goodman. Making the character even more interesting is the fact even Jim isn’t sure if he should accept the money, knowing the risks for not only himself, but his family should he fail to pay the money back and when the threats begin to include one of his students (Brie Larson) to which he’s taken a liking, he finally seems to see the bigger picture. But, no matter his decision, it’s going to take big risks and a lot of luck to dig his way out of the hole he’s dug for himself.
Wyatt has done a wonderful job crafting the first third of The Gambler, refraining from overly expository scenes, allowing the actors and Monahan’s dialogue to create the characters. He does use the obvious sequence featuring Jim betting big and losing big and it’s a scenario he goes to more than once, but I began to realize my frustration with it comes as a result of not only the fact it isn’t much different than the always tedious act of watching an alcoholic character drink themselves to death in cinema, but from actually liking the character you see on screen. It pains you to see them have the chance to work their way out of their predicament only to choose to stupidly dig themselves even further into trouble. Addiction is a bitch, we all know this, but the only way scenes like this work in a movie is if you actually care for the character on screen and this movie accomplishes that, much in the same way it worked with Mary Elizabeth Winstead in James Ponsoldt’s 2012 feature Smashed.
There’s also an interesting use of music throughout as Wyatt seems to battle against the cliched use of scoring scenes to add an element of drama. He realizes the drama is in the action on screen and any additional use of music will either undercut or destroy the scene altogether. There is so much drama to be found in just letting the scene and ambient noise tell the story and it works wonders here. However, he then includes inserts such as a strangely tuned campus stroll featuring Larson that I didn’t get in the least bit. It was like the movie suddenly broke into a music video before coming back down to earth.
Almost surprisingly, the film’s best scenes come from Jim’s classroom teachings. Jim’s personal decline leaks over into his teaching as he comes to class with what some may consider too honest an approach to teaching. He singles his students out, places the onus on them, asking them just what exactly they expect out of their future, just not in so many words. He seems to care, but his caring comes out of frustration, a frustration you can attribute to what he’s dealing with in his personal life as much as with the world he sees before him.
Wahlberg has always come across as a performer tackling characters that seem very close to his true nature and when he steps out of his element, such as in The Happening, he comes off a bit wooden, but here, for the most part, he embraces Jim’s flaws and thoughts as if they were his own and it really works. At least he had me convinced. Then you get to a pawn shop scene between Jim and the shop owner played by Richard Schiff (“The West Wing”) and you just might have the film’s best five minutes and worth the price of admission alone.
In the end, The Gambler is an uneven film as Wahlberg has to play a character living between two worlds and it doesn’t entirely work when he’s forced to put on a face and play tough guy at the tables, but in the more sincere, weaker moments Jim faces, of which the film is largely made of, Wahlberg nails it. My only major complaint is the film’s ending, which seems like something a Disney exec would tack on after receiving advanced test scores. This is a film begging for an open-ending as the roulette ball comes to a stop over a black screen, leaving the audience to decide Jim’s fate. Your want for him to succeed or fail says as much about him as it does about you and leaving the audience to figure it out for themselves will be as rewarding as it is frustrating and there’s something beautiful in that kind of filmmaking.
