Croupier (1998)

Director:

Mike Hodges

Writer:

Paul Mayersberg (written by)

Release Date:

21 April 2000 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama

Tagline:

Life's a Gamble

Plot:

An aspiring writer is hired as a croupier at a casino, where he realizes that his life as a croupier would make a great novel.

Plot Keywords:

Casino | Croupier | Gambler | Writer | Novel

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Clive Owen	...	Jack Manfred
Nick Reding	...	Giles Cremorne
Nicholas Ball	...	Jack Snr.
Alexander Morton	...	David Reynolds
Barnaby Kay	...	Car Dealer
Gina McKee	...	Marion Nell
John Radcliffe	...	Barber
Sheila Whitfield	...	Manicurist
David Hamilton	...	Casino Supervisor
Carol Davis	...	Table Supervisor
Eddie Osei	...	West Indian Punter
Doremy Vernon	...	Woman I
Claudine Carter	...	Woman II
Ursula Alberts	...	Madame Claude
Neville Phillips	...	White Haired Man

Also Known As:

Der Croupier (Germany)

Runtime:

94 min | Poland:91 min

Country:

France | UK | Germany | Ireland

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:12 | Finland:K-11 | Argentina:13 | France:U | Germany:12 (w) | Ireland:15 | Poland:15 | Singapore:R(A) | Spain:13 | UK:15 | USA:Unrated

Filming Locations:

Infostudios, Monheim, North Rhine - Westphalia, Germany

Company:

Arte

Trivia:

Disqualified from the Academy Awards after being shown on Dutch television.

Quotes:

Jack: [voiceover] A wave of elation came over him; he was hooked again... watching people lose.

A good film but not as satisfying as I would have liked

Jack Manfield is a writer but an unpublished one thus far. With money running out he follows a connection from his father that earns him a job interview in a London casino. After a short time he finds he has rediscovered the croupier bug and is back in love with his new job. He also finds that his experiences useful in creating a new book, lead the lead character, Jake, as a croupier. As he drifts apart from his girlfriend he loses himself in the world and starts breaking the rules – ultimately getting involved with a patron, Jani, who asks him for help in organising a heist at the casino.

Quite often it'll be the UK, European or underground markets that expose an American film as a good film after the US market has ignored it, but with Croupier it worked the other way round. Hardly making any impact at all upon release in the UK, it was apparently good reviews and good figures from the US that helped make it better known. As such I came to it with mixed expectations – I sort of half knew what to expect from it but I had also been led to believe that it would impress me a great deal. In some regards I enjoyed the film; it is intelligent, dark, thoughtful and has a reasonably enjoyable plot – even if the plot does have equal billing with the atmosphere. However don't expect a great plot that piles twist on twist, because this isn't what the film is about. Rather the film relies very heavily on the observations of the croupier himself (both as Jack and Jake) to drive the film forward. I can't think of another film that I've seen that uses voice-over to such a degree (and makes it work), usually heavy voice-over use implies that the script and characters were not strong enough to hold the film up by themselves.

The clever twisting of Jack/Jake is subtle but done to good effect and was a big part of the reason that this film engaged me. Outside of this I found the plot to be rather hard work – there is no one real thrust to the film with only the main one involving Jani really coming out to the front in order to deliver an ending in the traditional manner. This is a weakness and it stops the film being as satisfying as it could have been, with Jack not being provided with enough of a plot to be set in. That said it still works due to his character and some great direction from Hodges who avoids being overly flashy as the gambling world setting often encourages directors to be.

Owen is very good and convinces in his many scenes – he is the heart of the film and it is to his credit that he manages to do it. Even in voice-over he delivers good character and direction for the film. Kingston is not as good. Aside from doing her whole nudity thing yet again she also is lumbered with an accent that doesn't suit her and one that she doesn't sound comfortable with (even if it isn't that bad). McKee is OK, as are Ball, Morton and Parnell albeit in smaller roles. But in a film that is more about the croupier than anything else, the film is Owen's and he rises to it and does well with the lead role.

Overall this is an OK film and one that deserves better than it received upon first release in the UK. However plot-wise it is not as satisfying as I would have liked it to be, instead it relies heavily on the character of Jack – an aspect that is both the film's making and it's weakness (in that the film doesn't give him a good enough plot to be developed against).