Part of me sat depressed through this thinking I couldn’t have picked a worse movie to end 2007 with (of movies actually released in ‘07, at least). But maybe it’s actually the perfect choice. Curtis Hanson knows how to put a movie together, and like so many movies this year, too many by my reckoning, this is on the technical side perfectly acceptable. To make a card game of any kind even watchable is some achievement in itself. Here they even throw some golf in for good measure.

But to stretch this over a two hour period, with only a threadbare “man is logic, woman is emotion,” romantical conflict thing in the way of story? And then to cast Drew Barrymore and criminally underuse her? And then, in its last half hour, its entire last half hour, I swear … it switches to pretty much exactly what you’ll find if you accidentally switch to Channel 5 in the early hours of any given morning – a televised poker game, literally nothing more except Eric Bana has a hand and Drew Barrymore’s watching. It’s worse than the end of International Velvet, lol. It’s just incredible.

One is duty bound to use any pun available when dealing with movies like this, I’m afraid – Unlucky you if you made the same choice as I did in ending the year on this losing hand. This is the most depressing movie I’ve seen all year, exemplified perhaps best by the moment long after the final poker game is over when I found myself nearly screaming at the TV, “Oh my f**king god! They’re still talking!” Thank God for Music and Lyrics, or I’d be really questioning my love for Drew. It’s still a real letdown though.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 31st, 2007 at 1:35 am in 1 heart, Movie Reviews and tagged as cards, gambling, Las Vegas, poker, romance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.