Punters and cheaters

It took me a long time to get around to finally watching Mike Hodge's 1998 film Croupier but I'm glad I did. This is one of Clive Owen's first starring roles and with it he showed all the talent that we know associate with him. He plays a down on his luck writer named Jack. A guy who's struggling to write a commissioned novel about soccer while living in a cramped basement apartment in London. His father calls him up one day to tell him that he;s managed to get him an interview at a casino. Jack has skills as a dealer from his old life in South Africa so he decides that he'll take the job but only for a little while. He doesn't want to find himself in that world again after it's insinuated that it took him a lot to get out of it. But as one could guess, he starts to enjoy it again. He loves seeing people lose and he occasionally tries out little psychological experiments on the gamblers he deals cards to.

Jack sees his new environment and all the seedy characters that inhabit it as the perfect setting for a book. The job not only has provided him a source of income but of inspiration. He juggles his job, his book and his relationship with his needy girlfriend. As he maintains this tough balance he is thrown an offer by a seductive female gambler played by "ER"s Alex Kingston. She needs his help in staging a heist in his casino. He'll get 10,000 pounds at the start and another 10,000 after. But this movie isn't about this plot point. It's barely there and it's only one more thing in his life that he must deal with.

This is not a heist movie as I was led to believe. It is totally a character piece. A methodically paced and well written look into the psyche of Jack. A man who hates who he is but knows that changing his ways is only a way for him to lie to himself. He refuses to stray from his path. Mike Hodges makes his movie feel increasingly claustrophobic. Jack's apartment, the casino that's located in a basement as well, even the cars feel small. The walls are closing in on Jack and it's up to him to make a choice or stay trapped in it all forever. Hodges keeps the film well paced and has quite the eye for real locations. Not real as in "Hollywood" real. Real as in "I can almost smell the smoke and despair in the air".

Mike Hodges is a pro at giving us a look into the underworld of Britain. He proved it with his 1971 classic Get Carter and later reunited with Clive Owen for his 2003 film I'll Sleep When I'm Dead. A movie that I would have assumed would have had a cult following by now. Too bad I was wrong. Croupier is quite a unique movie and I'm glad I watched it. Even if it wasn't what I thought it was going to be.