Hit me.

A review of 21.

Like so many a hand in Vegas, 21 felt like a missed opportunity. Given its premise – MIT students work together in an elaborate card-counting scheme to best the blackjack tables in Vegas and reap oodles of cash – it had the potential to be a fantastically entertaining movie. Unfortunately, to my mind, it only partly delivered.

Directed by Robert Luketic (Legally Blonde, Monster-in-Law) from a script adapted by Peter Steinfeld and Allan Loeb (from the book Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezrich, which I have not yet had the pleasure of reading but now plan to), 21 tells the story of Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess), the quintessential good kid. Ben is an MIT senior and possessor of a shiny new acceptance letter to Harvard Medical School. What Ben doesn't possess, however, is the 300 K he'll need to pay for Harvard Med (but really, who does?). Enter Professor Micky Rosa (Kevin Spacey) and his coven of "extra credit" (literally) self-styled mathletes, who entangle Ben in their high-risk card-counting scheme by baiting him with the object of his crush, Jill Taylor (Kate Bosworth), at the expense of his relationship with his best friends, his heretofore impeccable school record and his integrity. Will Ben get the girl? Will Ben keep all his teeth? Will Ben fashion a plausible explanation for why he lacks any trace of a Boston accent despite being a native Bostonian? (As Jim Sturgess is a native Brit, perhaps the filmmakers figured they should just stick with a plain old "American" accent.)

It is precisely this – Ben's personal journey – that is most problematic to me in 21. At the outset of the movie, the script makes a point of showing us just how good a kid Ben is – a good guy to his friends, a good son to his mother, even celebrating his 21^st birthday with his buddies at the restaurant where she waits tables, and a good student – beyond the aforementioned Harvard Med acceptance, he also dazzles in his classes at MIT, which is how he attracts the attention of the Luciferous (no, not a word, but it should be one that exists specifically to describe 95% of the characters Kevin Spacey plays) Professor Rosa. In keeping with his virtuous character, Ben declines the offer to join the card-counting "team" not once, but twice, the second time saying no to Jill herself, who has turned up to erode his resolve while he's on the job at J. Press (a clothing store) (where, in yet another example if his high "good guy" quotient, he's recently been promoted to assistant manager). But then in a reversal the audience is permitted no part of experiencing, Ben shows up to team practice, making his entrance by showing off his innate card-counting prowess. It was incredibly dissatisfying to see nothing of what, given the set-up, should have been quite a moral struggle for Ben. And I was left asking myself why? Why the turn? Was it strictly because of his crush on Jill? Was he that tempted by the money? I needed to see more of the justification, especially given his anti-good guy behavior later.

In addition to the deficiencies in Ben's arc, the supporting characters were unevenly drawn. Ben's buddies, Miles (Josh Gad) and Cam (Sam Golzari), were terrific – funny, smart, spirited performances and excellent mirrors for Ben's turn to the dark side. But Ben's new companions on the card-counting team were simply types. We never got to know them, nor understand why they were on the team and why they wanted to be there. The kids never seemed to have enough fun to sell me on the greed, glitz and glamour justification. So why were they working so hard to bring Ben into the mix? And I never understood what was so special about Jill that she seemed to pull an Eve on Ben. The story revealed little about her character and Kate Bosworth's performance was, well, fine, but not compelling. And not to harp on hairstyles of actresses named Kate (see Snow Angels review), but honestly, I was distracted by how well-coiffed she was in each and every scene, and how exactly even her bangs and hair were cut, as though she had them trimmed every other day (which she probably did, on the set, but no college kid, especially one at a school in Boston in the middle of winter when hats go on heads fair often, is going to bother spending the time and money on). Kevin Spacey gave a fine performance of a one-dimensional character he's played several times before, as did Laurence Fishburne.

While the lack of definitive motivation for Ben's biggest decision prevents 21 from being a great movie, there was still plenty to enjoy. You'll probably see the "twist" coming from a mile away, but that still doesn't mean it's not fun to watch it play out. And I may be biased because I love the city, but I think Boston makes for a great setting, and sometimes a character, for many a film (see, e.g., The Departed, Gone Baby Gone, Good Will Hunting to name a few) and it only enhances 21. The contrast between wintry, conservative Boston and colorful, unrestrained Vegas is well-portrayed. I wouldn't necessarily recommend that you double-down and pony up the bucks to see this movie in a reserved-seating Arclight-esque theater, but it's certainly worth spending the nickels you would have otherwise entertained yourself with at the slots to see it on the big screen at a regular theater.

Dodge Ball.

A review of Leatherheads.

Leatherheads is a pretty fun movie. Or, one could also say that it's a pretty, fun movie. It's beautifully shot and visually stunning, the costumes and hairstyles in particular standing out in a good way. And the scenes that consist primarily of witty, rapid-fire barb-trading are amusing and zing in all the right places. Unfortunately, these scenes cannot hold the movie together and "pretty good" makes for a decent, but not great, movie-going experience.

Directed by George Clooney and written by Duncan Brantley and Rick Reilly, Leatherheads' story revolves around the efforts of Clooney's Jimmy 'Dodge' Connelly to reignite interest in professional football in the 1920s and thereby preserve the existence of his team, the Duluth Bulldogs, and his job as the world's oldest running back. Dodge sees his solution in the person of star Princeton running back and war hero Carter Rutherford (The Office's John Krasinski), whose play has been attracting crowds of upwards of forty thousand fans. Dodge succeeds in getting Carter and his sleazy agent/manager, CC Frazier (Jonathan Pryce) to sign up to play with the Bulldogs. Enter Lexie Littleton (Renée Zellweger), the Chicago Tribune's crack reporter assigned to "cook Rutherford's goose" and reveal the truth about his heroism or lack thereof while serving as a soldier in the Great War. A love triangle develops (or rather, attempts to develop) (because really, does anyone ever doubt that George Clooney will get the girl? Or is here where I need to provide the disclaimer that I find Clooney disarmingly charismatic and irresistibly attractive?) (seriously, who could deny him when he cocks his head just so and makes those puppy dog eyes?) and hijinks ensue.

But even the entertainment value of the hijinks could not obscure the underdevelopment that plagues Leatherheads. It did not feel like a fully realized tale, but rather, felt like two different pictures. There was the movie about the evolving gentrification of professional football with the introduction of rules and the removal of the whimsy and trickery that seemed to give the game its appeal. Then there was the stylized romance between Dodge and Lexie, slapstick at its best. Back and forth it went, like the tossing of a football, zigging when it should have zagged, never settling upon a true rhythm and never fully integrating the two stories. The stakes never seemed high enough because the tone of the film reassured us that neither Dodge nor Lexie nor Carter would truly lose it all. Thus, the diversion needed to come in the route to the conclusion, one that never veered from the standard playbook. Clooney should've taken a page from his character and introduced a few trick plays rather than sticking to the tried-and-true buttonhooks and standard Statue of Liberty formations.

Within those limitations, however, the performances by the main players are strong. Clooney's Dodge charms his way through every scene and his comic timing is impeccable. You can almost see how much fun he and Zellweger are having amidst their onscreen volleys. And Zellweger handled the comedy and stylized scenes deftly, although at times Lexie's utter lack of flappability (rather ironic for a flapper) took me out of the periodness of the piece. Krasinski's Carter was equally well-played, and he convincingly oscillated from likeable to unlikeable, opportunistically switching allegiances and historic truths as the situation required. And Jonathan Pryce's CC was delightfully dastardly. A great number of the supporting characters were insufficiently defined and therefore not as memorable, a flaw in the film and a shame as it wasted some very talented character actors. One notable exception was Peter Gerety's (of HBO's The Wire) role as Commissioner Pete Harkin, a highly amusing ball buster (pun intended).

The conclusion of Leatherheads will surprise no one. But watch through the end credits anyway, and you won't be disappointed. They take you through an array of amusing photos which reveal the fate of the characters. Like the players in Leatherheads, you won't be any worse for the wear for having seen it, but you probably won't be much better off, either. So I'd consider it a solid DVD rental. I'd only give it matinee-price potential if a) you're really desperate to see something in the theater and truly nothing else appeals; b) you have a fine appreciation for the art of costume design and/or hairstyling and/or cinematography; c) you like your Clooney larger than life; or d) none of the above, but you're open to a little fun. Hey, pretty fun is better than no fun.