Review of Croupier (1998) by Jams G — 01 Apr 2007

"Hang on tightly, let go lightly." That's the saying that Clive Owen's character, Jack Manfred says while he's selling his beloved sports car to pay the rent. Jack is a down-on-his luck writer with a terrible case of writer's block. He's forced to have to go back to working the gambling tables, working as a croupier, or card dealer at a local casino. The situations that he gets into and the characters that he meets are definitely great to watch.

For some of us here in the U.S., this is our first glimpse of Clive Owen, long before there was a "Derailed" or "Children of Men". This movie played at many of the art houses across the country and I doubt that you can find the DVD in your local video rental store, but if you do find it, please check it out.

For most of the movie, Clive is doing a voice over narrative. This forces you to see so much in his eyes, the people that he sees, and what's going on. This is a nice, modern film noir movie. Plus, if you're into the whole gambling movie genre, this is a great DVD to add to your collection. It's a British movie and there's no closed captioning, but maybe with Clive Owen's success, they might decide to re-release this movie on an extended DVD.