21 (2008)

(NOTE: Written shortly after the TWBB review)

In the period between the Oscars and the summer blockbuster season, a good film is hard to find (did anyone need to pay to see Fool’s Gold or College Road Trip to know that would be a complete waste of money?).

Enter 21, the (sort of) true story of a ring of card-counting blackjack players who moonlight in Las Vegas when they’re not studying at MIT. Led by Professor Micky Rosa (Kevin Spacey), the team takes the casinos by storm and makes a fortune at the blackjack tables.

Don’t be fooled by the less than lukewarm reviews 21 is garnering. 21 is an entertaining and engaging piece of filmmaking that, while it won’t put you on the edge of your seat, allows you to sit back and enjoy the ride. Director Robert Luketic, best known for the courtroom chick flick Legally Blonde, deftly keeps the plot moving amid plot twists and setting changes.

But like any game of blackjack, 21 has its hits and busts.

Among those hits is Spacey’s performance as the ringleader of the card-counting cabal. Simultaneously cloying and devilishly malicious, Spacey steals every one of his scenes, and – though the part of Micky Rosa probably won’t win him any gold statues – this film reminds us all why Spacey has two Oscars to his name.

Laurence Fishburne, who audiences will recognize as Morpheus from The Matrix but who will for me always be Cowboy Curtis from Pee-Wee’s Playhouse, also has a decent supporting role as casino security head Cole Williams. As intense as ever, Fishburne commands attention and does more with his small role than most actors (think: Keanu Reeves) do in a leading role.

But the star of the show, both on the posters and in the mind of this reviewer, is Jim Sturgess, who made his big splash as Jude in Julie Taymor’s Beatles-based musical Across the Universe. With an all too convincing American accent, Sturgess is more than comfortable playing both sides of Ben Campbell, both the uneasy novice and the drunk with power “big player.” Look for greater things to come from this endearing Paul McCartney doppelganger.

Indeed, the only acting role that falls flat in 21 is Kate Bosworth. Certainly she succeeds in looking attractive (that is, when it’s not evident that she’s unhealthily skinny), but that’s the only strength she brings to the role of Jill Taylor. Emotionally, Bosworth is dull, empty, and otherwise lifeless in what is supposed to be a powerful leading lady role.

The other element of 21 that falls short of the mark is the plot. Though the plot meanders and twists in several different directions, no plot point is truly surprising. 21 falls squarely into all the tropes of the genre, and the message is as transparent as the glass windows in the gorgeous Vegas suites.

The cinematography is similarly dazzling. Luketic guides the camera through Vegas casinos almost effortlessly, navigating the audience through the pits and highlighting clearly the tricks and communicative signs used by the players. In this respect, 21 does for card-counting what Lagaan did for cricket; without going into too much detail, the film gives a cursory explanation of the ins and outs of card-counting while focusing more on the importance of the skills to the characters.

Though the message of “There’s more to life than money” is hammered repeatedly like a blunt bludgeon, it’s not difficult to read the film as a thematic sequel to Scorsese’s Casino, since both films carry an undercurrent of lament for a new method replacing an old guard. Here we see biometric software replacing traditional security measures and a new squad of card-counters replacing Spacey’s Professor Rosa.

Is a new method always the best? The film lets its audience make up their own minds.

Is this new film the best? By no means is this the best film ever, but compared to duds like 10,000 B.C. it’s certainly the best film of the year currently at the theaters, as box office receipts would agree.

Then again, there’s more to life than money.