Review

Review Date: 4-January-04
Spoiler Rating: Medium
Juju Judgment: Junk

The Cooler (2003)

In his many supporting roles since "Fargo" (1996), William H. Macy has been sad, funny, pathetic, sweet, and disturbing, but it wasn't until he got the lead in "The Cooler" that he became boring. It's too bad, really, since I'm always rooting for the talented "character actor" to get the big part, the best scenes, and the girl. In theory, that's the whole point of "The Cooler," but in fact the script lets Macy down, leaving him with a sickly two out of three.

As written by Frank Hannah and director Wayne Kramer, "The Cooler" feels like a 45-minute concept for "The Twilight Zone" that has been forced into a feature-length movie, with the result that it's never quite sure of its focus or whether it's a serious drama or dark comedy. Macy stars as Bernie, a sad sack loser who works at a Las Vegas casino shedding bad luck on hot gamblers; he is such a great "cooler" that one touch of his hand on a table reverses the fortunes of everyone sitting around it. Except for this novel idea, the film consists entirely of rehash, so naturally Bernie looks to leave the stinkin' town and seek greener pastures. The inevitable obstacles to this plan crop up after he receives a come-on from a pretty cocktail waitress named Natalie (Maria Bello), who stumbles beyond Bernie's nerdy negativity and her own troubling secrets to discover true love, much to the surprise of both of them.

Like most movie couples, Bernie and Natalie fall in love in less than 72 hours, and we're expected to hope avidly for their happiness because we feel sorry for them and can see that they have good sex. The trouble is, we don't see much of anything else in the way of compatibility or bonding. In lieu of delving into the hearts, minds, or pasts of these two characters, the movie tries to kill excess time with a tangent involving Bernie's long lost scumbag son (Shawn Hatosy), which doesn't add anything to the story other than perhaps giving the audience an unpleasant desire to pummel someone's head in. (At least, that was its effect on me.) After emerging from that episode and heading into Act III, the only thing we know is that Bernie is a cipher and Natalie just another hooker with a heart of gold.

The big threat to the lovers' plan of escape comes from their boss, Shelly (Alec Baldwin), the one character given enough personality to generate some interest (but not enough, alas, to save the movie overall). Ostensibly your typical underworld honcho, Shelly actually stands for something: the old Vegas, the old way of making money, the old power structure. As such, he's the last of a dying breed, threatened within his own casino by a hotshot MBA (Ron Livingston) who represents the new establishment and the triumph of bottom-line, market-researched new ideas. Shelly is a bastard, unquestionably, but he's also the only businessman in the modern theme-park incarnation of Vegas with enough interest in human ties to consider the appeal of tradition, loyalty, or love in anything where money is concerned. That sets him apart as a character and sets Baldwin apart as an actor, so that, ironically, he's the man we remember from "The Cooler" instead of the star of the picture, William H. Macy.

Copyright © 2004 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.