"Love...you have to play to win."

The Cooler (2003): 8/10

Poster (c) Lions Gate Entertainment

The Cooler was one of many recent movies edited down from an NC-17 rating to a more commercial R rating. While many of those show signs of editing and choppiness, this movie works just fine the way it is, and although much of the content is rather extreme, a lot of it is nothing new. Sure, some is brutal, and some is edgy, but that never gets in the way of the central message. The message is hidden underneath great performances and a story that never loses where it’s going. The Cooler is a sheep in wolf’s clothing. It has a spectacular cast but in reality it’s just a small movie, that’ll slip under the cracks, hopefully into Oscar’s room.

William H. Macy, with whom you can never go wrong, plays Bernie, the unluckiest guy in Vegas. He’s working under Shelly (Alec Baldwin), the owner of the fictional Shangrai-La casino, as a cooler, someone who goes over to hot tables to cool their luck. His luck changes when he meets cocktail waitress Natalie (Maria Bello), which doesn’t fare well with his relationship with Shelly. In addition, Bernie’s son Mikey (Shawn Hatosy) and his pregnant wife (Estella Warren) come for money. What is Bernie to do?

What made this really appeal to me was how it went past the stereotypes and showed the average person in Vegas. It’s not all of the glitz that the movies have made us believe, but everyone that we see briefly and not think one thought of actually have lives. Even the bigwigs at the top of the ladder have conflicting feelings and difficult decisions. It’s by no means a big movie, in fact, the only real “action” besides a few brief scenes of brutality occurs at the end, and even that’s not much. Many of the people are just regular people, so you feel with them, and want them to win.

The story is very original. The idea of a cooler is fascinating, and I don’t think anybody knows if casinos actually have them. If they’re an invention of director/co-writer Wayne Kramer’s mind, I have to congratulate him for coming up with such an original premise. Even if it wasn’t, the story overall is very intriguing. The concept of Macy falling in love with someone like Bello is almost completely laughable, except for the fact that they make the love believable. It’s not your Woody Allen love story. A man falling in love with someone half his age is unbelievable, but the love that’s shown between the two in the movie is authentic.

Macy, the greatest actor ever to grace the screens of Hollywood, puts in a subtle performance, but yet again showing level of intensity that he showed in Fargo. He makes Bernie a character of many different levels, not something everyone could do. Baldwin puts in a performance that could have been hammier, something that that role required, but he seemed to be lacking something. All of his awards are not deserved. Bello did, though. She, like Macy did, put in a multilayered performance, though obviously not as subtle.

The Cooler is a small movie that packs a big wallop. Hopefully the big awards will notice that.

Rated R for strong sexuality, violence, language and some drug use.

Review Date: January 19, 2004