Film
Cinema Rediscovered: Croupier + Mike Hodges Q&A
- Director
- Mike Hodges
- Certificate
- 15
- Running Time
- 94 mins
Clive Owen is Jack Manfred: a would-be writer of hardboiled fiction whose dodgy old man fixes him up with a job as a croupier in a middle-raking casino. This displeases his store detective girlfriend (Gina McKee, in a thankless whinging role), especially as he becomes increasingly wedded to the job, takes to shagging co-worker Bella (Kate Hardie), and gets involved in a robbery plot involving seductive South African Jani de Villiers (Alex Kingston – yes, sweaty blokes, she gets ‘em off again).
Bristol-born Get Carter director Mike Hodges‘ over-praised 1999 crime drama starts off promisingly with a fascinating, observant behind-the-scenes look at the world of the casino, its culture and rituals as Jack is shown the ropes. But before long you realise that his smug and superior voiceover is going to persist for the next 90 minutes. Jack, you see, is a deeply unsympathetic public school-educated twerp who divides the world into croupiers and gamblers, winners and loses (original, eh?), and brings all the benefit of this great insight to bear on his continuously gestating novel, for which he appropriates the casino’s clientele as characters. But – you saw this coming didn’t you? – he’s in danger of turning into his own protagonist. There’s some rich satirical potential here, but it seems that Hodges takes the self-absorbed, adolescent and embarrassing Jack seriously, feeding him some truly painful dialogue. Owen treats this with the respect it deserves by delivering it in the trademark wooden fashion that characterised many of his ealry performances – when he’s not chain-smoking, the better to illustrate his cool detachment, as the useless and incoherent drama unfolds. Nick Reding, meanwhile, walks away with the film as Jack’s sleazy publisher. “He’s a terrorist,” he says, introducing his latest prodigy at a book-signing. “It’s a ‘kill and tell’.”
Mike Hodges will be present for a Q&A hosted by broadcaster Samira Ahmed following this Cinema Rediscovered screening.
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