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The Card
Counter (2021)
 
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Directed
by:
Paul
Schrader |
COUNTRY
USA |
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GENRE
Crime/Drama |
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NORWEGIAN TITLE
The
Card Counter |
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RUNNING
TIME
112 minutes |
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Produced
by:
Braxton Pope
Lauren Mann
David Wulf |
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Written by:
Paul
Schrader |
Review
When even a movie about gamblers and
card counters turns into a fairly standard revenge flick, you know
that Hollywood – and Paul Schrader – is in desperate need of a blood
transfusion. Which is a real shame, because Schrader's latest
picture, The Card Counter, starts out as
an atmospheric and simmering drama with a hypnotic electronic score
by Robert Levon Been and Giancarlo Vulcano, and starring an intense and immaculately
stylish Oscar Isaac. He plays William Tell, a casino
player who counts cards at the blackjack table and wins
consistently, but keeps the stakes low in order to go unnoticed. He
just plays for the love of the game and to have something to fill
his life with. He obviously has some demons to deal with, but they
are kept in the background – that is until he meets the young
drifter Cirk (Tye Sheridan), whose life story makes William take him
under his wing. Paul Schrader has always been interested in people
living on the edge of society or in sub-cultures, and The Card
Counter seems to be an obvious venture down another such road. When
Isaac's voiceover explains the details of blackjack and poker early
on in the movie, we're led to believe that we're in for a deep dive
into the specifics and mechanisms of these card games. But alas, the movie soon
turns to much more well-trodden movie territories, and the
ostensible sub-plot involving the talented Tye Sheridan (The
Tree of Life,
Mud, Ready Player One)
becomes the main plot line. It's a choice of path which greatly reduces
The
Card Counter's potential and places it firmly in the garden-variety
bucket, in which it will wither and slowly be forgotten. Tiffany
Haddish is badly out of her depth in a contrived role as Isaac's backer.
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