Striking sequences in the new revenge thriller “The Card Counter” borrow from virtual-reality technology.
These flashback scenes set in Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison are brought to nightmarish life with visuals created with a special camera, an ultra-wide architecture lens and computer software that are coupled with harrowing sounds that include the type of hard-pounding heavy-metal music military interrogators are known to have used during controversial interrogation sessions.
These remarkable moments make up only a tiny percentage of “The Card Counter,” and, in more subtle ways, it is almost always interesting to look at and listen to writer-director Paul Schrader’s film.
Plus, it boasts a compelling lead performance from the reliable Oscar Isaac as an Iraq War interrogator-turned-professional gambler walking a long, tortured road he hopes leads to redemption.
But while it works reasonably well as a character study, “The Card Counter” stumbles often in little ways that distract from that purpose.
Most notably, the usually hilarious Tiffany Haddish is miscast here as a woman who works as a go-between for big-time gamblers and financial backers, and Tye Sheridan adds little in a key supporting role.
And although veteran film actor Willem Dafoe is fine, as you’d expect, he is greatly underused.
Furthermore, the film feels slightly off conceptually.
Its title is “The Card Counter,” and while Issac’s character does begin as a man grinding out an existence by counting cards at low-stakes blackjack tables, he spends most of the tale sitting at Texas hold ‘em tables, working his way toward an appearance at the World Series of Poker. Really, though, this is an examination of a man who did horrible things in war, and card-counting has only surface-level impact on the story.
Oscar’s William Tell — not his real name, if that’s not obvious — tells us in the opening narration that he never imagine he would be OK in confinement, but after he was given a 10-year prison sentence, he found incarceration suited him rather well. He appreciated the route, the consistency.
“The faces changed,” he says, “but not often.”
It gave him time to read a book from cover to cover for the first time, and he learned to count cards in blackjack.
In the present day, he counts cards, and he wins money — something casinos are OK with as long as the stakes are low, he says.
He’s content to seek only small paydays, traveling from casino to casino with linens he uses to cover everything — everything — in cheap motel rooms.
That changes after he encounters Sheridan’s Cirk, whose dad served with William overseas. They shared a commander in Dafoe’s Major John Gordo, and Cirk holds Gordo responsible for what happened to his dad.
William decides he must protect Cirk by keeping him from enacting what the former believes to be a poorly conceived plan of revenge and convinces him to go on the road with him for a while. However, Gordo is a big reason William was sent to prison, so it’s not as if seeing the man suffer doesn’t offer some appeal to him.
Wanting to build up enough savings to make a meaningful difference in Cirk’s life, he changes his mind about an offer made to him by Haddish’s La Linda to find someone to bankroll his pursuit of a seat at the World Series.
From here, “The Card Counter” drifts toward what could be seen as its inevitable conclusion
While Isaac (“A Most Violent Year,” “Star Wars: The Ride of Skywalker”) is borderline-entrancing at times, he is unable to find any chemistry with Haddish (“Girls’ Trip,” “Bad Trip”), which makes it especially hard to buy the attraction building between them.
And the bland performance by Sheridan (“Ready Player One”) doesn’t exactly sell the idea William would change his routine for Cirk, as sad as his story may be.
To be fair to the actors, Shrader’s writing is rather underwhelming overall, which is very disappointing.
The director of 2017’s “First Reformed,” Shrader’s credits also include co-writing four scripts for films directed by Martin Scorsese, including “Taxi Driver (1976) and Raging Bull (1980), and Scorsese serves as an executive producer on “The Card Counter.” It’s not surprising, then, that the Scorsese vibes are heavy here, and the film’s darkness and tension are two reasons it’s earns a very reserved recommendation.
For some, the intriguing visuals, haunting soundscapes and work by Isaac will be enough. Others at some point may realize that, with the hand they’ve been dealt here, they’re drawing dead.
‘The Card Counter’
Where: Theaters.
When: Sept. 10.
Rated: R for some disturbing violence, graphic nudity, language and brief sexuality.
Runtime: 1 hour, 52 minutes.
Stars (of four): 2.
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September 08, 2021 at 12:31AM
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