|
|
|
|
Lucky You
Directed by Curtis Hanson
By Radheyan Simonpillai
Director Curtis Hanson is much like the erratic gambler at the centre of his latest film. After displaying his exceptional skills with L.A. Confidential, Hanson began blasting away his chips on gambits like 8 Mile and In Her Shoes. This steady decline culminates with Lucky You, a high-stakes Texas Hold’Em romance that’s deficient of any heart, unless of course you count the ones on the flop, the turn and the river. (If you didn’t understand that last bit of lingo this poker-verbose flick certainly isn’t for you.)
The film stars Eric Bana as compulsive Vegas gambler Huck Cheever, whose knack for reading beyond the most concrete poker faces is offset by his inability to divorce bets from emotions. This problem gets particularly out of hand when Huck is at the tables against his poker legend father, L.C. Cheever (Robert Duvall), with whom he has some unrequited issues. Enter Huck’s lucky charm, Billie (Drew Barrymore), a hopeful songstress with a keen eye to end the gambler’s losing streak with women. However, her success depends on whether Huck — or the director, for that matter — can leave the tables long enough to give the relationship the slightest bit of attention.
The bland romance at the film’s centre — with what spare moments it’s afforded during the Poker World Series — amounts to nothing more than Drew Barrymore doing a wrinkled rendition of her childish flirtations. Her character is so irrelevant that she disappears from a diner scene for a prolonged period of time and no one questions her absence upon her return. This is only possible because all the attention is fixated on the slightly more engaging father-son duel. Robert Duvall lends the film some gravitas, with his deep, raspy voice and hawkish smile, building on the tension between Huck and L.C. However, this hostility is only sustained long enough to arrive at the next round of gambling then finds an exit resolve near the end that’s more convenient than developed.
What’s not convenient here is the film’s timing. Hanson’s long-delayed project was green lit when the Texas Hold’em fad was at a fever pitch. Unfortunately, it arrives about two years too late, when most die-hard poker fans — the target market, in this case — are now mostly too tired and broke to indulge in a faded memory. Hanson should stop playing his luck because it’s his audience that will fold with flops like Lucky You. (Warner)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Once - Dir. by John Carney
Only Hollywood can afford to gloss over romances with expensive candlelit dinners and convenient plot twists that propel narrative and embrace the celluloid version of warmth. In both the real world and Dublin musical Once, there’s awkward fumbling, aimless detours, a sense of loitering and the feel
...Read More
|
|
|
Fay Grim - Dir. by Hal Hartley
Hal Hartley’s decade-later follow-up to Henry Fool has none of that film’s wit or power. And although it grasps at bigger issues than were covered in the original, it somehow seems like less of a statement.
Parker Posey stars as the eponymous Ms. Grim, who hasn’t seen h
...Read More
|
|
|
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End - Dir. by Gore Verbinski
The best film series based on a ride (and, um, pretty much the only) comes to a conclusion, at least for now, with a massive, convoluted but occasionally entertaining (nearly) three-hour tour that attempts to wrap up every plot point and resolve every moral dilemma raised in Dead Man’s Chest,
...Read More
|
|
|
|
2:37 - Dir. by Murali K. Thalluri
|
|
28 Weeks Later - Dir. by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
|
|
Bug - Dir. by William Friedkin
|
|
Fracture - Dir. by Gregory Hoblit
|
|
Georgia Rule - Dir. by Garry Marshall
|
|
In the Land of Women - Dir. by Jon Kasdan
|
|
|
Inland Empire - Dir. by David Lynch
|
|
Jindabyne - Dir. by Ray Lawrence
|
|
Paris, Je T’aime - Dir. by Various Directors
|
|
Paris, Je T’aime - Dir. by Various Directors
|
|
Scenes of a Sexual Nature - Dir. by Ed Blum
|
|
Shrek the Third - Dir. by Chris Miller and Raman Hui
|
|
Spider-Man 3 - Dir. by Sam Raimi
|
|
The Ex - Dir. by Jesse Peretz
|
|
The Flying Scotsman - Dir. by Douglas Mackinnon
|
|
Waitress - Dir. by Adrienne Shelly
|
|
Year of the Dog - Dir. by Mike White
|
|
|
|
|
|
 | 
|
Taking a break at about the halfway mark of director Kathryn Bigelow's Iraq war drama, The Hurt Locker, I realized my jaw was sore. I had been unconsciously clenching it from the first moment of The Hurt Locker, which chronicles a three-man team of explosives ordinance disposal (bomb s...
Full Review
|
|
|
|
|