Logic On Ice
In Wayne Kramer's The Cooler (2003) everyone's favourite hangdog William H Macy finally gets his own lead role as the title character, a professional loser employed by superstitious casino boss Alec Baldwin to put a downer on his punters' winning streaks by his mere presence at the gambling table. When this overgrown Charlie Brown catches the eye of feisty waitress Maria Bello and they fall in unlikely love, the cooler suddenly develops a midas touch on the casino customers, much to the dismay of the management who are caught up in a power struggle of their own. Business being business, everybody's going to get hurt come the final shake of the dice.
This glossily-shot film has enough surface charm and visual sleight-of-hand to keep most viewers sufficiently entertained not to notice (or at least, mind) the cliches and inconsistencies of a plot so ridiculous it could have been imagined by Douglas Coupland. For instance, while you might find yourself accepting the most gratuitous use of x-ray vision in the entire history of cinema, on reflection you may struggle to buy the film's apparent premise that the 'old school' mob rules of violent retribution are in some way preferable to the cynical, impersonal number-crunching of modern corporate thinking.
Ultimately what makes the film worth sticking with are the smart performances from Macy, Baldwin (who earned an Academy Award nomination for his troubles) and Bello (who strikes the right balance of sexiness and vulnerability to at least give the plot some vague semblance of credibility). There's a strong supporting cast, too, including Ron Livingston as a smarmy Harvard graduate, NSync's Joey Fatone as a nascent lounge singer (introduced, in the film's slyest joke, as 'the next Harry Connick Jr') and Paul Sorvino as the fattest heroin addict you ever did see.
Effectively a romantic comedy (albeit one filmed with dramatic intensity) The Cooler just goes to prove that old adage that every shaggy dog story has its day.
In Wayne Kramer's The Cooler (2003) everyone's favourite hangdog William H Macy finally gets his own lead role as the title character, a professional loser employed by superstitious casino boss Alec Baldwin to put a downer on his punters' winning streaks by his mere presence at the gambling table. When this overgrown Charlie Brown catches the eye of feisty waitress Maria Bello and they fall in unlikely love, the cooler suddenly develops a midas touch on the casino customers, much to the dismay of the management who are caught up in a power struggle of their own. Business being business, everybody's going to get hurt come the final shake of the dice.
This glossily-shot film has enough surface charm and visual sleight-of-hand to keep most viewers sufficiently entertained not to notice (or at least, mind) the cliches and inconsistencies of a plot so ridiculous it could have been imagined by Douglas Coupland. For instance, while you might find yourself accepting the most gratuitous use of x-ray vision in the entire history of cinema, on reflection you may struggle to buy the film's apparent premise that the 'old school' mob rules of violent retribution are in some way preferable to the cynical, impersonal number-crunching of modern corporate thinking.
Ultimately what makes the film worth sticking with are the smart performances from Macy, Baldwin (who earned an Academy Award nomination for his troubles) and Bello (who strikes the right balance of sexiness and vulnerability to at least give the plot some vague semblance of credibility). There's a strong supporting cast, too, including Ron Livingston as a smarmy Harvard graduate, NSync's Joey Fatone as a nascent lounge singer (introduced, in the film's slyest joke, as 'the next Harry Connick Jr') and Paul Sorvino as the fattest heroin addict you ever did see.
Effectively a romantic comedy (albeit one filmed with dramatic intensity) The Cooler just goes to prove that old adage that every shaggy dog story has its day.
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