The Gambler
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Movie Reviews of The Gambler
Movie Review: james caan itself
Summary: 4 Stars
james caan has play the character very well and is in the centre of the movie.The ups and downs are the gamblers live,but the lesson is dont play with the mafia and dont play with what you love at most.Movie Review: Excellent Drama
Summary: 4 Stars
An excellent movie, given an average treatment on DVD- that is to say, good picture quality, murky sound, and zero extras. Its still worth a purchase though, for the movie itself.Movie Review: "I'm not going to lose it. I'm going to gamble it."
Summary: 3 Stars
James Caan is Axel Freed, an English professor in New York City. He also has a serious gambling problem. As the movie opens, Axel has racked up $44,000 in gambling debts from a bookie/loan shark named Hips (Paul Sorvino). Fortunately, Axel's family is extremely wealthy, so he manages to convince his mother to give him the money. He assures her that this is the end of the gambling. However, as soon as he gets the money, he picks up his most recent girlfriend (Lauren Hutton) and heads to Las Vegas.
"The Gambler" is a rather good examination of how gambling can affect someone's life, as well as the lives of people around them. Caan's character nicely exemplifies the psychology behind how many people develop gambling problems. He explains that he's afraid of winning, not of losing. In his class, he discusses a piece by William Carlos Williams which criticizes George Washington for being risk-averse - it's easy to draw the parallels to Axel. Caan does a nice job here, with some relatively subtle acting. He received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Drama - the only major award nomination the movie received. The script by James Toback is loosely based on the novella by Dostoevsky (Axel is named Alexei in the novella). Unfortunately, the last 20 minutes of "The Gambler" simply aren't very believable, as Axel's life spins further out of control and he becomes more desperate. This latter section of the movie undercuts much of what came before, making this a 3 star instead of 4 star movie.
Movie Review: Overambitious or Underdelivered
Summary: 3 Stars
Obstensibly about gambling addiction, this film is in fact a portrait of the addictive personality. Caan's character (Axel Freed) represents a complex individual who is a study in contadictions. His chaotic spiral into the depths of his addiction both mirrors and contrasts with the insightful portaits of his classroom lectures. His societal role as gifted college professor and child of a nouveau-riche immigrant family contradicts a wholey individualistic and reckless lifestyle in constant search for the emotional rush of living on the edge. This, his true addiction, is revealed at the end of the film when his gambling "career" has seemingly ended. A rare sub-commentary contrasts the humanly personal sides of Axel's mob associates with their violent career personas, bringing to mind the movie Mean Streets (with the youthful pairing of Harvey Keitel and Robert De Niro). Indeed, the movie may suffer from attempting to deal with these general themes on too many levels.
A few graphic scenes and raw emotionalism give this film an edge that is appropriate to its themes. Some viewers may be put off by racial stereotypes stemming from this era of blaxploitation. Otherwise, acting and direction are adequate to the task, although characters are somewhat one dimensional; and the plot is thought provoking, if not always engaging.