Plot
John Dahl directed this exploration of New York private clubs devoted to high-stakes poker, with first-person narration from the film's central figure, law student Mike McDermott (Matt Damon), who loses his entire savings to Russian club owner Teddy KGB (John Malkovich). Mike then turns away from cards, devoting his attentions to his law studies and his live-in girlfriend Jo (Gretchen Mol), who's concerned when Mike's former gambling buddy Worm (Edward Norton) is released from prison. She has good reason to worry, since it takes Worm only a matter of minutes to draw Mike back into poker action. When she learns Mike has returned to the poker clubs, she moves out, and Mike begins to lose interest in his studies. Worm has a pre-prison debt, and the threatening Grama (Michael Rispoli) wants the money. Mike not only indulges the irresponsible Worm, he gets involved in Worm's debts. When Grama demands $15,000 on a five-day deadline, the two buddies go into high gear with a non-stop, no-sleep gambling binge that spirals downward toward an ultimate confrontation with Teddy KGB. Darkened club interiors and New York nights are captured by the cinematography of Jean Yves Escoffier, who moved from French films (the 1991 Les Amants du Pont Neuf) to American movies with the reflective surfaces of Excess Baggage (1997) and the patina of pathos found in Harmony Korine's experimental Gummo (1997). Shown at the 1998 Venice Film Festival and the 1998 Montreal Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, RoviReview
Mike is apologizing to his law school girlfriend for how he ended their relationship. She says, "Call me if you need a lawyer." Mike responds, "I will. And I will." That response neatly encapsulates the best aspect of Rounders, a film that takes a clear look at the type of person who becomes involved in the world of high stakes gambling. Matt Damon, playing against the type he had created a year earlier with his work in Good Will Hunting and The Rainmaker, embodies Mike's self-destructive tendencies while simultaneously revealing a self-awareness. He knows he will mess up, hence the wonderful goodbye line to Jo. Mike's best friend Worm is everything Mike would be without his self-awareness. Hunted, desperate, and selfish, Edward Norton's performance evokes Robert De Niro's Johnny Boy in Mean Streets, but not so much so that it is distracting. It is as if Worm saw Mean Streets as a child and decided he had found his role model. Like Dahl's previous film, The Last Seduction, Rounders is a character study, but unlike that film it is a character study that feels like real life. Where Bridgett in The Last Seduction was a love letter to every femme fatale in film history, Mike in Rounders feels like a guy that one might actually know. In addition to the clear-eyed look at the gambling life, Rounders boasts superb supporting performances by Martin Landau, John Turturro, and John Malkovich (who employs an outrageous Boris Badinoff accent that shouldn't work but does). Dahl, with the help of his performers and a solid screenplay, creates an entertaining modern noir.~ Perry Seibert, Rovi
Cast
- Matt Damon - Mike McDermott
- Edward Norton - Worm
- John Turturro - Joey Kinish
- Gretchen Mol - Jo
- Famke Janssen - Petra
Credit
Rick Butler - Art Director, Christopher Goode - Associate Producer, Tracy Falco - Associate Producer, Avy Kaufman - Casting, Terry Dresbach - Costume Designer, John Dahl - Director, Scott Chestnut - Editor, Kerry Orent - Executive Producer, Bob Weinstein - Executive Producer, Harvey Weinstein - Executive Producer, Bobby Cohen - Executive Producer, Christopher Young - Composer (Music Score), Randall Poster - Musical Direction/Supervision, Amanda Scheer-Demme - Musical Direction/Supervision, Rob Pearson - Production Designer, Jean-Yves Escoffier - Cinematographer, Ted Demme - Producer, Joel Stillerman - Producer, Beth Kushnick - Set Designer, Mark Weingarten - Sound/Sound Designer, Brian Koppelman - Screenwriter, David Levien - Screenwriter| Roundabout (1978 Film), Round-Up Time in Texas (1937 Film) | |
| Rounding First (2005 Film), Rounding up the Law (1922 Film) |
