Seen: July 8th, 2007
Format: Broadcast (HDNMV - HDNet Movies)
Rating: 4
This is the story of Stu Unger, perhaps one of the most gifted card players ever. It's the story of his journey as a player, from his very early teen years until his death. It's a tragic but fascinating story.
And told pretty badly.
I'll fully admit that I was very engaged in the story. Stu was a larger than life personality. His methods and motivations were extreme. He was so good at what he did that it ceased to be a challenge for him and became a grind. He sought his excitement elsewhere, and it some ways that eventually cost him everything.
Unfortunately, this story is told on full-on Docudrama mode. The bookends for the movie are trite. The whole "story as a flashback" thing is difficult to do well, and it's particularly poorly done here.
The writing in general has problems. The film comes off as a series of vignettes as opposed to a complete work. When thing seem to slow down or fall apart, we make a trip back to the hotel room to "reset". Chronologically it feels a bit disconnected as well.
The dialogue is uninspired. It may be accurate, but the characters come off as caricatures, with the possible exception of Anthony. A case in point is Angela. We have no idea who she really is except in reaction to Stu. There's some decent actors in this film, it's a shame they weren't given better material to work with.
The film itself feels low budget. While the casino shots are effective, the rest of the sets and locations feel low-rent and plastic. The film has very little sense of visual style. I can appreciate simply shot films, but this one is just downright static and boring.
Basically, this is for card players. If you want to see how one of the greatest tore himself apart, step right up. The rest of you may want to take your shekels elsewhere.
The Good: Story
The Bad: Almost everything else
The Ugly: Destined to fail
No comments:
Post a Comment