New Gambling Film Hitting Theaters: The Gambler

Hitting theaters this Christmas day is "The Gambler," a new film dealing with gambling addiction and its consequences. Directed by Rupert Wyatt, The Gambler is a remake of a 1974 movie featuring James Caan by the same name. 

Professor by Day, High-stake Gambler by Night

The new film follows Jim Bennett (Mark Wahlberg), a Los Angeles English college professor by day and a high-stakes gambler by night. Bennett is a gambling addict in self-denial who likes taking his bets to the top and finds himself up to with $240,000 in debt to an illicit Koreantown casino. To make things worse, the high-rolling professor takes loans from a snarky gangster named Neville Baraka (Michael Kenneth Williams).

The plot then follows Bennett's attempts to clear his debt and climb out the hole that he had dug for himself. These efforts cover his relationships with three students who are aware of his gambling woes including Amy (Brie Larson), who works as a part-time waitress at a casino. Bennett also deals with his wealthy mother (Jessica Lange) and a big-time loan shark named Frank (played by a bald John Goodman). As expected, Bennett's situation spirals out of the control to create a fast-moving thriller filled with gambling, violence, rhetoric and even some philosophy (there's an emphasis on Albert Camus's existentialist novel "The Stranger").

"Dynamite Performance" by Wahlberg

When remakes are made, they are almost always those of good movies and that in itself is a risky endeavor, but according to early reviews the strong cast seems to do honor to the original. Specifically, Mark Wahlberg's performance as the professor with a knack for gambling was called "dynamite" by The Guardian newspaper. Wahlberg took his role seriously, managing to win and lose $45,000 at a single visit in a Macau casino while getting into character.