21 (28 March 2008)
directed by Robert Luketic
starring Jim Sturgess, Kevin Spacey, Kate Bosworth, Laurence Fishburne, Aaron Yoo, Liza Lapira, Jacob Pittsp, Jack McGee, Jash Gad, Sam Galzari, Helen Carey, Jack Gilpin, Frank Patton
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MPAA rating: Studio: Michael De Luca Productions, Relativity Media, Trigger Street Productions Script: Peter Steinfeld, Allan Loeb Based on the book by: Ben Mezrich Music: David Sardy Running time: 123 minutes Tags: based on true story; betrayal; blackjack; casinos; Drama; gambling; Harvard; Las Vegas; MIT; money; non-fiction book adaptation; Planet Hollywood; revenge; Thriller; video surveilence Tactical strength: [5/10]
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for some violence, and sexual content including partial nudity
Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess) needs $300,000 to pay for Harvard Medical school. He qualifies for a full ride scholarship, but only one of the seventy qualifying candidates will get the scholarship. The Harvard admissions officer tells Ben that he will award the scholarship to the student who writes a personal essay that dazzles him. Ben returns to his mundane life at MIT moaning that he doesn't have any real dazzling life experiences. During class, Ben comes to the attention of his math professor, Micky Rosa (Kevin Spacey), who runs a small "business" with five students flying to Las Vegas on weekends and counting cards at the blackjack tables. Of course, Ben first declines -- and the script shows the first of many clichés -- but eventually the looming need for Harvard tuition brings Ben back to Professor Rosa.
We see a montage of scenes where Rosa and the other members of the team teach Ben their card counting scheme and the code language and body signals they use to communicate with each other on the casino floor. After a quick trial run at an underground Chinese gambling hall, Ben passes Professor Rosa's scrutiny, and the team starts making regular trips to Las Vegas. Supposedly, most casino's employ face-recognition software to spot card counters. Fortunately for Planet Hollywood -- where the management hasn't yet replaced humans with software -- our card counters set up shop, and the casino gets a load of screen time. Unfortunately for our heroes, Cole Williams (Laurence Fishburne) runs casino "loss prevention" and eventually marks Ben as a card counter.
The script of 21 relies on compounding several clichéd plot elements. First comes Ben's poor boy makes good but needs to do something radical to break through some barrier. Usually the barrier comes from some internal flaw in the protagonist, but in this case, Ben just needs the money. Next, Ben has a romance with teammate Jill Taylor (Kate Bosworth). The romance weakly follows the formula of meet girl, lose girl, and regain girl. But in the final scene, we see Ben walking up the steps of a Harvard building alone, so we don't really know if he keeps the girl. Next, we have Ben going beyond his need for money and falling for the thrill of the game. Now Professor Rosa has warned everyone on the team about the importance of not letting emotions make decisions instead of strictly following the counting system. Ben even sees a fellow teammate get kicked off the team for getting drunk (out of jealousy at being replaced an the best gambler by Ben) and losing a large sum of money. In spite of the warnings, Ben does the same thing and looses over $200,000 in a single night. Rosa storms out of the hotel room and swears that Ben will repay every penny. Ben, still somewhat of high on adrenaline augmented with the hotel's free alcolol for high rollers, convinces the team to pool their own money to take the casino for the $200,000 and more. The team starts making big money, but Cole Williams breaks up their fun and hauls Ben to the basement and ties him to a chair for some old-style chit chat with a fist covered in rings.
Ben returns to MIT broke, finds that Rosa has failed him in Math (eliminating the possibility of Harvard Medical school), and that all his money, which he kept stashed in the drop ceiling of his dorm room, stolen. When Ben first put his money in the ceiling, I wanted to yell, "Ben, have you heard of a safe deposit box? I think you can afford one." But no, the 4.0 GPA MIT student can't find a better place to hide his money than a ceiling where college prankster routinely travel to get into locked rooms. Really, why not just deposit the money in a bank? It's not like the Casino didn't already withhold the taxes on winnings of Ben's scale. He really doesn't have anything to hide, but the script wants to give us more of a feel of sneakiness and illegality -- in spite of Professor Rosa repeatedly insisting that nothing they did was illegal.
So, I'll leave you with Ben at his low point, but remind you that the script follows several overused clichés, so even without me describing the rest of the film, you can deduce the final outcome. Ok, in case you're not in the mood for deduction: revenge, reconciliation with dumped friends and abandoned girlfriends, and some dazzling "life experiences" for Ben to use in his personal essay.
The script relies on the viewer's sympathetic view of Ben -- that we will fall into the dream of getting rich quick, beating those evil casinos at their own game, and the poor boy who needs to beat the odds to get into medical school. The camera and the film editor do more work than the actors. We see hundreds of close up shots of casino chips, winning blackjack hands, and brief shots of the actors' faces smiling in flushed glee. The film relies on the rush of emotions viewers will feel in response to the large sums of money and not the acting. In fact, the film even opens with a sort of frame with Ben narrating over shots of Las Vegas glitz. Just from the title, we know that the movie involves blackjack, so the frame does nothing but promise those viewers only interested in the adrenaline rush of winning big at gambling, that they will get their addiction fulfilled.
Although a fun romp, 21 doesn't merit viewing in theaters. Wait for the DVD release, and you won't miss anything except understanding why your co-workers keep saying, "Winner! Winner! Chicken dinner!"
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