The Gambler Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

The Gambler Blu-ray Movie Review

Deeper and deeper....way, way down.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman April 16, 2015

The Gambler begins strong and fades as it pushes through a flat arc and towards a predictable finale. Director Rupert Wyatt's (Rise of the Planet of the Apes) latest film hits all of the usual notes with nary a twist or much more than a few well-placed and plot-perfect character details inserted to help make a difference by the end. Where the film aims to build a thorough character study centered on addiction, inner strife, outer conflict, ballooning problems, and shrinking escapes, it devolves into a transparent and tame Thriller that culminates in a total letdown of a climax, albeit one that fits with the movie's relative lack of grit and (mostly) absence of authentic tension. A remake of the 1974 film of the same name, 2014's version prefers tightroping its way through the motions, afraid to push too far but never quite going far enough, failing to truly get inside the mind of a man whose vice has taken him down and, ultimately, is the only thing that can bring him back up. The movie is technically proficient but lacking the depth necessary to get more than a fly-by glimpse into a world that Philip Seymour Hoffman has already fully defined, leaving The Gambler feeling superfluous, contributing nothing new to the genre or the discussion.

Gamblin' man.

Jim Bennett (Mark Wahlberg) spends his days delivering literature lectures to college students. His nights, however, are spent gambling away a fortune. He lays thousands of dollars on the line at the blackjack table at an underground casino operated by a man named Lee (Alvin Ing). Jim's either very good or very lucky; he turns $10,000 into a sum many times that amount after just a few hands, but his luck runs out to the tune of owing Lee nearly a quarter-million dollars. He gets in deeper with a couple of shady loan sharks (Michael Kenneth Williams and John Goodman), and even when he has the money in-hand thanks to an angry mother (Jessica Lange) who bails him out for the last time, he can't help but to blow it. He's got a week to pay off all his debts before he meets the end of his road. Meanwhile, he begins a relationship with a student (Brie Larson) and finds a use for Lamar (Anthony Kelley) and Dexter (Emory Cohen), two of his academically underachieving but athletically gifted students, in a plan that just might get him out so long as they don't mind helping him go all-in.

The Gambler starts strongly and falls apart soon afterwards. The opening gambling sequence is breathtakingly agonizing, a painful, intense, emotionally charged open that does a superb job of defining the character's high-stakes, all-in mentality while instantly conditioning the audience to the same. It's invigorating, genuinely tumultuous, haunting, and even sad, leaving the audience wanting nothing more than to jump through the screen and stop him while he's ahead. Then again there wouldn't be a movie, but considering how quickly The Gambler loses its edge, that might not have been a negative outcome. For as well as it's crafted to begin -- with Wahlberg selling the intensity, the unbreakable addiction -- there's never much real sense of deep characterization. Sure he's an accomplished lecturer and one of the most refreshingly blunt ones at that, but the entire movie centers on his gambling. Even with a few flashbacks to his childhood -- driving with his dad, holding his breath in the pool -- he's an empty vessel who thrives on the addiction and nothing else. Nothing -- not his classroom antics, not his burgeoning relationship with one of his students -- helps to give shape to a shallow character who isn't in the least bit sympathetic because, outside of that brilliant open, turns into just another guy with just another problem that he's allowed to spiral deeply out of control. It's not Wahlberg's fault -- he's quite good with the listless material at his disposal -- but instead the painfully threadbare script that settles for simple rather than aims for amazing.

The pieces surrounding Wahlberg are equally bland. There's not an interesting character in the bunch. All of the people to whom Jim owes money are only some variation on the same character theme. Each of them lacks an identifiable center, and even the scene-devouring John Goodman, who puts up a good fight in his limited screen time, can't make much out of a routine character filling a stock part in a linear film. His relationship with Amy never feels like anything more than filler even as it aims to serve as a greater physical representation of a possible paradigm shift for Jim, Lamar exists only to serve a simple purpose, and Dexter's character seems superfluous. The film even fails to find much in the way of character-building significance in the lecture hall scenes, which are some of the best in the movie if only because they feel a bit more novel than the rest of the structurally flimsy picture. Rupert Wyatt struggles to maintain interest in the film beyond its richly crafted open, sinking with the ship and ending the picture with a transparent thud that feels like the ultimate surrender to a lame, though baseline passable, movie.

The Gambler Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Gambler's digital photography leaves it looking a little pale and flat but in-line with basic HD expectations. The biggest fault here are pale and soupy blacks; black sports coats go too bright and purply and run together into one giant blob at an early-film funeral. Otherwise, there's not a lot of room for complaint. Details are sufficiently crisp and pleasing, with good facial detailing and, aside from black attire, well defined clothing lines. General image clarity is a strength, revealing with a consistent sharpness all of the supporting pieces beyond the characters, such as rectangular poker chips or background bits in any number of locations. Colors satisfy; the movie is fairly dark but captures a healthy, stable palette with ease. Skin tones are even and accurate. The image shows only trace amounts of noise and no perceptible banding, aliasing, or blocking issues. It's not the peak of Blu-ray perfection, but this transfer gets the job done.

The Gambler Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Gambler bets it all on a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. It's a good, involving presentation that gets everything right and in harmonious full-stage balance. Music is nicely clear and instrumentally well defined, with a solid heft about it, easy front-side spacing, and trace amounts of surround support. The back speakers carry a fair load of content, including balls spinning through roulette wheels, classroom chatter, dialogue reverberation in the lecture hall, casino bleeps and dings, and crowd din and basketball dribbling at a game in the third act. There's not much in the way of heavy, intricate effects outside of a heavy downpour and deep, booming thunder, both of which are richly detailed and impact with just the right amount of low end support. Basic dialogue is delivered richly and robustly with commendable clarity throughout the entire movie.

The Gambler Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The Gambler contains several extras, and inside the case buyers will find a DVD copy of the film and a voucher for a UV/iTunes digital copy.

• Mr. Self Destruct: Inside The Gambler (1080p, 14:12): A look at the original film, modernizing it through the writing and filmmaking process, the reworked thematic and narrative details, Wahlberg's performance and weight loss for the role, crafting the lecture sequences, and Brie Larson's character and performance.
• Dark Before Dawn: The Descent of The Gambler (1080p, 16:26): An examination of the film's technical structure and visual cues, sets and shooting locations, crafting authentic casino and gambling sequences, Rupert Wyatt's direction, character dynamics, and the end.
• Changing the Game: Adaptation (1080p, 9:02): A closer look at the process of re-imagining the original film, including thematic differences, character specifics, the screenwriting process, and more. Writer William Monahan impresses a great deal in the piece and presents a compelling argument for the film's strengths, at least insofar as the characters, dialogue, and resultant themes and explorations are concerned. This is the best piece amongst the supplements by a large margin.
• In the City: Locations (1080p, 9:27): As the title suggests, this piece looks at the various shooting locations seen throughout the film.
• Dressing the Players: Costume Design (1080p, 7:49): Another self-explanatory piece that focuses on wardrobe.
• Deleted/Extended Scenes (1080p): Jim's Lecture - EXT (9:18), A Born Teacher - EXT (1:58), Big Ernie (2:38), Taxi Ride (1:34), Jim's Ex-Wife (6:40), and Larry Jones (1:44).

The Gambler Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Gambler is a decent, though painfully linear, story of addiction, but Owning Mahowny still owns the "gambling problem" movie crown. The Gambler lacks the sort of deep characterization, authentic tension, and spellbinding flow necessary to lift a story of this sort off the page and make it into a movie with something to offer beyond routine drama and generic thrills. The movie, then, can be boiled down to a single word: "disappointing." Paramount's Blu-ray release of The Gambler features good video and excellent audio. A decent array of featurettes and deleted scenes are included. Rent it.