I will admit, poker is one game which I have never played well. I say that in part because my poker face looks even more comedic, less like Amarillo Slim and more like Zero Mostel from the Producers. Oh, and several key attributes necessary in the game, perhaps the ability to make quick basic number calculations or comprehend the nuances of sandwiched in between sane individuals, are not really up for grabs in this individual. Similar to chess, I do know the principles of the game, and I know what it is ultimately trying to achieve. Everything else what comes in between, flops, rivers, and all, all remain a puzzle which people have tried explaining in various ways over the years, but never effectively.
I’ve watched a few poker movies to be able to say which one’s good (Robert Altman’s brilliant “California Split” and “The Cincinnati Kid”) and which is not (“Runner Runner” and “A Big Hand for the Little Lady”). Now, there is a new film in the market called “Dead Money”. It wouldn’t be proper to say that this film was about poker or even related to poker in any way as there was nothing out of the ordinary to depict in the first place: tension, excitement, as well as the characters and situations themselves. However, it is quite an average movie that leaves its audience disappointed while trying to give them the impression of being something greater.
The story is set in the US and begins with an illegal poker game that is conducted in the house of an addict Jack (David Keith). Out of the players, Andy (Emile Hirsch) is a professional poker player, Andy’s girlfriend is a medical student named Chloe (India Eisley) and a cop LT (Peter Facinelli) joins the game as well. There are moments when the game gets interrupted by two masked robbers who walk in and break Jacks nose and steal away all the game’s winning cash. These participants decide that this is enough. But when Andy goes back to Jack’s house in order to pick up Chloe’s forgotten bag, he finds out that those desperate to pay back their debts – Jack – had hired no-brain thugs Wen (Jackie Earle Haley) and uncle lonnie (Rory Culkin) to rob his own game. He takes advantage of the chaos and finds a stash of cash and conceals it within his body and quickly runs away.
In the morning, the cold streak Andy has felt for quite a time seems to have been defeated as he pays off his current debts and decides to lay low for quite some time. Although this plan seems to be workable, it goes awry when he tries to make the payment and ends up in yet another one. This particular time, however, things begin to finally break in his favor. Over the next few hours, Andy manages to pull off the hot streak. Afterward, he finds himself in a very high stake game organized by the sinister Faizel (Jimmy Jean-Louis) which is attended by Bobby Kirkland (Brennan Brown) the legendary player. Meanwhile, Jack and Wendell determine that Andy absconded with the money and go to Andy’s apartment looking for it. They take Chloe hostage after she appears unexpectedly. When Jack discovers that Andy went to Faizel’s, he arrives, sees that Andy is winning and orders him to make $500000 or Chloe gets killed which, later on, Jack finds very difficult to achieve on the account of bad luck striking him.
If you are reading my description, the best way to manage Dead Money is to think of it as a crossover between Rounders and those crime movies directed by Tarantino in the late 90’s. Other characteristics include vibrant conversations, convoluted storylines, and characters who are either threatening somebody with a gun counting down to the time or who happens to be in the process of dying from some unwise event that happened earlier. Josh Wilcox’s script covers its bases with regard to the background details but does little or almost nothing else of any interest. We are left in a scenario where we are more consumed watching a bunch of retards doing stupid things at the same time presenting us with a well narrated loving picture of poker and its complexities.
The games themselves, however, are not that ridiculous as the exaggerated types showcased in a film like ‘Maverick’ but the issue is that they are amusing in their own right, and that is almost completely due to the fact that director Luc Malpoth treated them in a more interesting and resourceful manner, if somewhat superficial, than the script. It is a case of never quite building any actual tension, including when various people are in peril or when the characters have guns aimed at one another’s heads.
The actors do not have much to work with when it comes to their characters which have been poorly fleshed out – Hirsch is lead and rather generic, Eisley is mostly mute and gagged, and Keith, Haley, and Facinelli seem to have come to blow as to who gets to annoy us the most in the entire movie (I would root for Haley just to hear him say how he wants money to set up his own cockfighting club without any regrets).
Dead Money at the end of the day is just a new version of a B movie, an unimaginative, run of the mill programmer meant to fill a slot in a multitude of such content meant to stand behind more famous works. It lacks the seasoning that would otherwise make it something people would not forget in a hurry. Perhaps fans of poker will see it as a cool wait for ‘Rounders 2: The Desolation of the Oreos’ to come out. Otherwise, this movie will leave most viewers wanting to fold way before the climax.
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