Review of Croupier (1998) by Adrian B — 11 Mar 2013

Fairly different drama that observes the life of a croupier (Clive Owen), who often works odd hours at casino, while balancing a relationship with his woman (Gina McKee) and his job. However, his profession (along with his love life with his woman) gets sticky when he starts to have flings with other females, including a supervisor (Kate Hardie) and a mature South-African woman (Alex Kingston).

In addition, he begins to see the laundering industry come into play with the gambling industry, and some of those players involved are pretty vicious. Clive Owen is the main player here and he is the best thing within the movie, although McKee, Hardie, and Kingston supporting are also quite good.

For me, though, there is really not much of a plot, as their some disjointedness in the storyline, but more of a character study, and the payoff surprisingly works. Also, the irony of the film is quite memorable, as the term "croupier" comes from the French for gambler and Owen claims he is not a gambler (although he does take a job in a casino that leads to his risking his own life so essentially he is mistaken about that).