Croupier – 1999 | 89 mins | Thriller, Crime | Colour

Plot Synopsis

In attempting to update the slow-lane hypnotic qualities of the late 60’s and early 70’s British thriller that he helped to patent, Mike Hodges offers up the tangled, wildly hit-and-miss Croupier. Jake Manfred (Owen) is a frustrated, penniless novelist whose shady father (Nicholas Ball) calls from South Africa to say that he’s lined him up with an interview for a job as a casino croupier – the character’s first skill, when not penning terrible prose.

Reluctantly, Jake is employed at this “house of addiction”, allowing Owen to display impressive flashcard-and-chip skills. A man of sky-scraping scruples, however, Jake himself doesn’t gamble, but he is a ladies man with a Bond-like appetite. His amorous encounters involve store detective girlfriend Marion (McKee) and fellow croupier Bella (Hardie), not to mention South African gambler Jani De Villiers (Kingston) who’s knee-deep in debt. When Jani asks him to become involved in a plot to rob the casino, Jake’s rock solid morals are tested with the twin temptations of heroically bailing out this potential lover and getting his hands on £10,000 in cash.

Where Croupier begins to fray at the edges is in Jake’s attempt to write a novel about his experiences, constructing the book in his head with a amateurish internal monologue. Elsewhere, the film suffers from stilted dialogue, none worse than the unconvincing sexual shenanigans between McKee and Owen. Hardie, however, is afforded a couple of great jaw-dropping lines and fine comic touches are scattered throughout, mostly coming from Nick Reding’s publisher. Nevertheless, Croupier lurches from stylish tension and dry comedy to toe-curling awkwardness with perplexing regularity.

Tom Doyle.