The Cooler

The Cooler
Directed by; Wayne Kramer, USA, 2003
Drama / Thriller / Romance, 101min
Distributed by: Nordisk Film

Story:
Meet Bernie Lootz [William H Macy] the worlds most unlucky man. Hired by Shelly [Alec Baldwin], his old school Las Vegas boss, to jinx lucky gamblers at the Shangri-La casino he's doing quite well for himself, and in seven days time he's packing his bags and leaving Vegas to start a new life. That is until Natalie [Maria Bello] walks into his life and turns his world upside down.

Me:
This is independent cinema at its finest. Damn this was a good movie. William Macy just rules every scene he ever shows his adorable face in. The story is a rather typical "down and out in Vegas" type of tale, where lowlifes and hard guys mix with the few sympathetic characters that the story centres around. In this case Bernie and Natalie. Even though there's a feeling of awaiting doom lurking around each corner the move manages to keep the glimmer of hope through out. Not to give away the last fifteen minutes, but it's one of the first time's in a long while that I've taken on such an emotional rollercoaster. Acting is obviously fantastic in this movie, Baldwin's old school hard guy is magnificent, Macy, like I said just rules, Bello pulls off a decent washed out Vegas dancer routine. Throw in small but impressive bit parts like Paul Sorvino's Lounge room crooner hooked on smack, Ron Livingston's hard working next generation casino owner, a tall and menacing M.C. Gainey as a threatening Highway policeman, and you have a damned fine movie. Definitely worth checking out. I'm sure that I'll be returning to this one, it's all done so simple and easy, but so incredibly effective.

Image:
Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35:1

Audio:
Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dts

Extras:
Three trailers for other titles from Nordisk, and a twenty minute Anatomy of a scene featurette.