Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow Pictures present a PG-13 film with a running time over two hours directed by Curtis Hanson and starring Eric Bana ( Huck Cheever), Drew Barrymore (Billie Offer), Robert Duvall (L.C. Cheever), Horatio Sanz (Ready Eddie), Debra Messing (Suzanne Offer), Delaine Yates (Ginger), Daniel Doble (Edwin Daniels), Charles Martin Smith (Roy Durucher), Robert Downey Jr. (Telephone Jack), Saverio Guerra (Lester), Danny Hoch (Bobby Basketball), Jean Smart (Michelle Carson) and a cast of known poker players.
Set in Vegas 2003 the story evolves around Huck Cheever, a hotshot poker player trying to win his way into the World Series of Poker games with over 2 million dollars on the table. Struggling with his own personal demos Huck plays cards the way he should lead his life and leads his life the way he should play cards.
The film is a poker players dream on the big screen mixed in with stories that evolve around the lead player, Huck. When his winnings are down he always tends to find a way to work his way back to a stack of chips. Living in a house with no furniture, a pool with no water and a life that resembles a theme park roller coaster he has one item that he cherishes almost as much as I do, his mothers wedding ring. Gambling for Huck was his life, his job but when the stakes were down he resorted to pawning his mothers ring in order to wager at poker. One important game came into play between him and his biggest rival, his father. When the money ran out it came down to the pawn ticket for his mothers ring versus his fathers favorite watch. Even though the relationship between father and son was tarnished due to hard feeling about Huck's mother, the ring always played the main focus between the two on and off the poker table.
When Billie moves to town from Bakersfield to live with her sister she eventually takes a job as a singer at a local bar called Dino's. When she meets Huck the story line picks up on the cliché' of boy meets girl, loses girl and eventually wins girl back but not literally over a hand of poker. Along the way of some major poker playing we learn why L.C. and Huck have lost respect for one another and that even a player can sometimes get played or misread.
The cinematography shot around Vegas was spectacular and leaves you wanting to take the next flight out just to check out the sites. But remember money changes hands quite fast in the city that never sleeps. Life can change with the roll of a dice or the bet of a bad hand. A leaf never falls far from the tree and a son sometimes lands close to the base of his fathers roots. But everyone in life is trying not to be lonely and sometimes you have to say you're sorry in order to discover what is truly meaningful. Sometimes giving and receiving are more complicated than winning and losing yet many times two seconds can make the difference between one or the other. If you believe in karma than everyone over twenty-one gets what they deserve. But when the chips are down and the outcome looks bleak it's always good to know you have a father to turn to. Personally speaking I am not a gambler for the most part but like the reflection in a pool of water you sometimes can see yourself in the character of a film.
Huck makes his way to the World Series of Poker with over eight hundred players including his father playing for 2.5 million dollars. Along the way he begins to discover that winning without someone to share it with is sometimes losing in the game of life. If you're not a poker player you may find yourself lost within the game but if you pick out the meaning laced within the story of the characters involved than you might just come out a winner. It was a mothers ring that tore father and son apart but in the end was the band of truth that brought them together. Sometimes winning in cards and life is when you lose even if its pennies, nickels and dimes on the kitchen table. Remember the story is not over until the pretty lady sings exposing the left pocket.
The film will attract the poker players out to see some of their favorite players deal a hand. It tends to lean more on the side of a drama rather than comedy but has a great score embedded throughout its writing. The inner stories involved with the main characters tend to get a bit lost in the game but will keep you intrigued at least for the most part. Probably more so if the film was a half hour shorter in length. Even though I'm a big fan of Drew Barrymore's both professionally and personally this film may just draw a flush right to DVD rather than box office success.
Reporting for Talkin' Pets, I'm Jon Patch.