"Croupier" by Mike Hodges: a review

There are several superb movies that go unnoticed and forgotten and basically went straight to DVD’s or even shown immediately on television due to lack of endorsement, promotion and advertising. A brilliant English film, “Croupier” is a casualty under these circumstances. It has gone into oblivion without much ado, never seen in years until the movie was rescued. It emerged as one of the best movies of the year and could have been worthy of cinematic recognitions from prestigious American awards’ in 1999 if only it wasn’t shown on TV initially. The movie Croupier gained international acclamation in presenting a story about life, luck and the game of chance.

Croupier was initially shown in 1998 and took several years to be acknowledged as one of the most important and thrilling movies. Shooting Gallery Film Series which sponsors and promotes small independent films exposed Croupier to a much wider audiences and ultimately escalated it into a critically acclaimed and cult film. Although made on a string budget Croupier is an independent film project packed with high caliber actors and director. Directed by a veteran and well respected screenwriter in the British and American movie industry, Mike Hodges gave the audience exciting peek into the world of gambling and gamblers.

The multi-awarded actor Clive Owen’s plays one of his earlier starring role as Jack Manfred in film noir genre. Jack is a South African down and out aspiring novelist who lands a job in a popular London casino with the help of his manipulative father. Manfred’s financial circumstance compels him to work as a croupier, an impervious casino dealer and rather insolent people observer. Jack has all the qualities of a good worker who is honest and proficient card dealer, a skill he learned from his father.

In the movie, Jack narrates his everyday affairs and thrills in the casino like he loves to run outdoors on sunny days. Not the thrill of him gambling as he finds abhorrence in the game of chance but the uncanny pleasures he gets watching people gamble and the spectacle of losers losing more. He builds his novels around the casino characters and expressions and takes delight on their miseries.

Paul Mayersberg intelligently scripted movie slowly establishes other characters revolving around Jack’s cosmos such as his scheming and cunning father, Jack’s girlfriend Marion, who’s an ex-cop and works as the casino detective. Jack’s two other girlfriends Bella who also works as a croupier and prostitute. Jani de Villier, also South African and a gambler who tempts Jack to rob the casino.

The movie opens with Jack Manfred unable to write acceptable novel to his publisher Giles Cremorne. Giles needs somebody who could write about sports personalities and their juicy affairs and not the kind of narratives Jack keen at. With Jack’s first novel being rejected, he was clueless what to write next. His father who is an inveterate gambler arranges for Jack’s interview at the London casino so he can earn money he desperately needs. Jack was not really keen on taking the job as gambling reminds him of bad and sad incidents in the past.

Jack is able to impress the casino manager David Reynolds with his dexterity and tricks as croupier and landed the job. He was reminded though the basic house rules that he must never gamble and affinity and friendship between other croupiers and customers are strictly forbidden. Marion, Jack’s girlfriend was surprised of him being a croupier. His nightly job starts to affect their relationship as well as Jack’s ability to write. Jack then meets other casino croupiers Bella and Matt who are deliberately not adhering to the casino house rules. He apprehends Matt when he caught him cheating and warns him that he will make a report if he catches Matt again. Nevertheless, Jack keeps watchful eyes around the figures at the casino and starts to have an idea about writing a novel about his life as a croupier.

Meeting the good-looking woman Jani takes a twist in the movie when she offers him to join in the casino heist but Jack refuses. When he got offered thousands of pounds he decides to join and was given cash advances. Marion finds the money and has her suspicions after she heard the message Jani left on the phone. What happens next is an intelligent complexity among all the characters and events that gets audience at the edge of suspense. Croupier comprises the elements of both clever and sleazy movie beloved by audience and critics.

Croupier is an intense and engrossing thriller set in contemporary London which is widely credited as a critical factor in launching Clive Owens acting career in Hollywood. It is directed by Mike Hodges, and was initially set to be a feature Film. It was first premiered in 1998 and went to UK and USA theatres in 1999 and 2000 respectively, winning rave reviews and drawing regular audiences at the box office. This 90 minutes flick showcases high society Casinos, complex multi-themed plot and above all carries the trademark unpredictable storyline very much vivid in most of the works of Mike Hodges.

Croupier revolves around an aspiring writer Jack Manfred (Clive Owens) who, unable to make both ends meet, lands up with a job as a croupier (casino dealer) in a flashy uptown Golden Lion Casino. He was previously trained to Owing to his previous expertise as a croupier in a certain South African casino, he easily settles down with the new job. Jack is great observer, and even in job he is looking for some inspiration for his novel. He also has a very peculiar addiction, he derives satisfaction of seeing people loosing. As time passes by Jack adopts the base instincts of a good croupier, a superbly polite, cold hearted being who offers no mercy.

Slowly jack settles down with his new croupier lifestyle. The casino has a strictly laid down employee policy which includes, no gambling, no relationship of any kind with any co-employees or customers and most of all no uninformed collaboration with any of the gamblers. But Jack is shown to disregard these rules. He accompanies a co-croupier named as Matt (played by Paul Reynolds) to a sleazy party and has a brief sexual encounter with another croupier named Bella (Katie Hardy). As the story unfolds,tension slowly mounts up between him and his girlfriend Marion (played by Gina Mckee), an ex-police officer, who is not satisfied by his job despite several financial benefits they enjoy. Worse still, he finds himself increasingly attracted by a gorgeous gambler from South Africa named Jani De Villiers (played by Alex Kingston, the ER fame). And as a result he lets himself seduced by Jani De Vlliers. But he soon finds out the trickery of the situation, that Jani demands much more then just physical pleasure. As the story unveils Jani is revealed to be in a heavy debt from her creditors. In order to get the sum to repay the debt she hatches a plan to rob the casino. And of course Jack is an unwilling part in this plot. In the end Jack is shown to compile the entire above plot into his novel “I, Croupier”.

The movie basically pictures a man’s conflicting emotions of that of his dream and his reality. It aptly depicts the dark and hideous truth of a casino. In other words it offers a sneak-peek to the casino reality. It has twists and turns until the very end of the movie, and hence will be very much appreciated by the suspense lovers. Moreover, Croupier depicts an interesting scenario, in which Jack is repelled with the concept of casino and gambling, but still wants to try and test it in hope that the subject of casino will provide some staunch content for his novel. Actually in the beginning, the job of the croupierwhat was supposed to be a transition for Jack to better situation, but it ended up being a nasty experience, and also ironically, his key to the Novel “I, croupier”. Most of the plots of the story are linked with an overall interesting background narration, that keep the story together. It is clear that the movie lacks some of the elements very much vivid in ongoing commercial thrillers, such as action and violent sequences and also car chase very much in trend. But in this movie there is a very little violence and also there is no car shown is possession of Jack for most of the period. The Croupier has successfully disregarded the contemporary theory that there is no thriller without fight, fright, flight elements. Thus, Croupier maybe regarded as an unconventional thriller with very few elements of staple commercial movies. But that does not stop it for being an interesting and successful film. Hodges, who made his debut with blockbuster Get Carter in 1971, is generally regarded as offbeat filmmaker. And the success of croupier fully justifies his creativity and ability as a film-maker. The film with solid plotting and smart and unpredictable story line provides all the entertainment that a thriller ought to.

Clive Owen stars in the 1998 movie called Croupier. Clive is an English born actor who has played roles in movies such as The Bourne Identity, King Arthur, and more recently, The Boys Are Back. He has been nominated and has also won many awards, among those awards is a 2005 Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture for the movie, Closer.

This movie also stars Gina McKee, an actress who has had roles in such movies as Notting Hill with a classic home automation system, The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc, and Women Talking Dirty. She has appeared much on television as well.

Alex Kingston who is probably best known for her role as Doctor Elizabeth Corday on the television show E.R., is also cast in this movie. She has won three awards for her work on E.R., sharing all three with the cast, two of which are shared with actor George Clooney. She has also had roles on such televion series as CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

Another actor playing in this movie is Nick Reding who more recently played in a movie with Leonardo DiCaprio and Djimon Hounsou called Blood Diamond. He has also played a role in an episode of HBO's Tales of the Crypt.

Casting for this film was done by Leo Davis. Leo has been the casting director of a more recent 2008 film called The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas which is based on a Novel written by John Boyne. The screenplay for The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas was written by Mark Herman.

Written by Paul Mayersberg who directed The Last Samurai in 1990. Mayersberg received a Edgar Allan Poe Award nomination in 2001 for Best Motion Picture for Croupier.

Croupier was directed by Mike Hodges who was the original director of Damien: Omen II in 1978. He left the film after only three weeks of filming due to creative differences. He was then replaced by director Don Taylor. Murder by Numbers is another film directed by Hodges. One of which he had a co-director, Paul Carlin.

Croupier was also produced by Jonathan Cavendish and Christine Ruppert. Other producers included Executive Producer, James Mitchell, Associate Producer Marting Wiebel, and Line Producer, Jake Lloyd. Released June 18, 1999 by Image Entertainment in the United States and in Canada by Alliance Atlantis, it was shown in cinemas but was also shown on television in North America. Croupier was disqualified from the Academy Awards due to being shown on television.

Original music for this motion picture was by Simon Fisher-Turner. Simon has won two awards, among them, the Georges Delerue Prize that he shares with Ahrin Mishan for Claire Dolan in 1998.

Now in this movie Clive Owen plays Jack Manfred, a struggling writer who is trying to make ends meet in London. He gets a job with the help of his South African father, as a roulette wheel croupier. A croupier is an employee of a Casino who is paid salary to take and pay out bets. Now while working this job at the Casino which bares the name of the Golden Lion Casino, Jack becomes drawn into the world of gambling. He lets it take over his life and it ultimately it plays havok on his life and his relationship with his girlfriend Marion, played by Gina McKee. Marion is an ex-cop, who doesn't like this new job of Jack's, even though it is bringing in much needed money.

Jack starts a forbidden relationship with a regular gambler, Jani (Alex Kingston). This relationship is a violation of the Casino rules as the employees are not to associate outside the Casino with the gamblers. Jani confides in Jack though, telling him about being in debt. She then makes a play for him to be an inside man in a planned out heist at the Casino that Jack works for. Although Jack doesn't like the likes of cheaters, he can't help but consider the odds on this one. With the likes of Jani seducing Jack, it only leaves one question for Jack, How much luck will he have with the cards he is dealt?