Las Vegas seems to be the perfect film setting to see what hell is like while still on earth.
By: Bob Brown
This tight little film comes out of nowhere, sporting credible performances by actors who prefer having meat on the bones rather than a fat paycheck. The Cooler, nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance this year, is from the hand of South African-born writer/director Wayne Kramer, whose few previous credits are well below the radar screen. It just goes to show, you can never tell by credentials these days.
The setting is Vegas, or rather two Vegases the old one that the Rat Pack lived and breathed, and the new one, run by a Harvard B-School bottom-line crowd. The old Vegas is Shelly Kaplow (Alec Baldwin), who runs the Shangri-La Casino. Shelly remembers what the strip was like before it got tarted up, and he refuses to go down without swinging, as a younger, less-personal team tries to muscle in. Shelly is the kind of guy who can spot hookers in a heartbeat, especially ones who walk through his lobby. Once they do, they’re on his payroll.
He also controls the gaming tables the old way, by making sure bad luck is generously spread around. His insurance policy for that is Bernie Lootz (William H. Macy). Merely standing still, Bernie exudes waves of ill fortune that affect even the creamer for his coffee. He’s the perfect cooler, a guy who’s hired by the house to snuff any runs of luck on the floor.
But Bernie is tired of the life. Giving Shelly a week’s notice, he intends to be off until he bumps into a new-hire waitress, Natalie (Maria Bello), who needs a little guidance and protection around the rough gaming tables. In a flash, Natalie latches on to Bernie, one of the few guys who treats a woman with respect. Back at his cheap motel, she’s showing him a lot more than the necessary gratitude. It’s apparent that no one has ever complimented him on his sexual equipment before, brief as its performance has been.
Suddenly, his own luck seems to be turning. Natalie urges Bernie to stick around. She’s plotted his horoscope, and things are indeed propitious, but only if he stays in Las Vegas. Bernie thinks if she really loves him, she’ll leave the city too. Who’s testing whom?
The script is taut and funny where it needs to be to break up the tension. This is Las Vegas as you imagined it, where day and night are all the same on the casino floor, and where the tough, smart guys who call the shots are always served by tougher dumb guys who pull the trigger. Especially convincing as the toughest of the old-school, Alec Baldwin’s portrayal of Shelly is one of his finest in recent films, earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He’s a very bad man with a nostalgic streak and just a hint of humanity. The National Board of Review thought enough of his performance to award him its Best Supporting Actor award this year.
William H. Macy makes a specialty of mousy men who don’t often have the guts to hang on and avoid being sucked into a vortex of evil. For once, he plays a guy who trusts his better judgment, no matter what the consequences. Not only that, he gets to play a romantic lead of sorts, opposite a remarkably beautiful woman.
Maria Bello (Natalie) is not seen much on the big screen, although she has impressed viewers of the TV series ER. Acting was not her original plan law was, when she studied at Villanova. This film may change that. It’s a gutsy performance that veers between sleaze and tenderness much like the character Elisabeth Shue played in Leaving Las Vegas, although this movie is less relentlessly depressing.
For those who object to explicit portrayals of sexual activity or personal brutality, this film is not the one to book for a Saturday night. While it’s not quite Casino, it doesn’t shy away from a frank portrayal of a city whose major activity involves women and men who have little respect for other people’s bodies or their wallets. It’s a meat market in many ways.
Las Vegas seems to be the perfect setting for films where people get to see what hell is like while still on earth. Here, the city is a test of character can anyone avoid the pit?
In Jim Whitaker’s cinematography, the colors veer from murky film noir to washed-out desert white. Characters’ gaudy clothing seems to light up from within, as if it’s plugged into the walls along with the slot machines. Mark Isham’s score highlights the excesses of that earlier Las Vegas, with its brassy stage bands and gaudy pop singers. You want to get out of town as badly as Bernie does, before somebody smashes your legs with a crowbar for something you did, or didn’t, do. How’s your luck running?
Rated R. Contains strong sexuality, violence, profanity and some drug use.