The Gambler

First Hit:  Didn’t hit the mark in many ways, but there were some wonderful performances.

When playing certain characters, Mark Wahlberg definitely hits the mark and does it well. Here as Jim Bennett an Associate Professor in Literature, it doesn’t really work. It wasn't believable to me.

As an obsessed gambler, attempting to find a way to care about anyone including himself, he’s rather good. Mixing the two didn’t work for me, although I enjoyed is pointed stabs at the students in his class. His negative and sorrowful attitude didn’t play well with this students as well.

Whereas the classroom was full when the film starts, in the seven days over which the film takes place, the ending count of students was about 12. His relationship with his mother Roberta (Jessica Lange), his dying grandfather (George Kennedy), and everyone else is toxic, antagonistic and indifferent. What makes all this worse, is that he starts a relationship with Amy (Brie Larson) one of his students. I got that he was searching for a way to learn how to care about himself and others, but getting to this point was not well done.

However, I really liked that the director did not overuse mainstream gambling casinos, but focused more on private gambling dens.

Wahlberg was great as a non-caring gambler but the rest of his role didn’t seem to fit very well. Lange was interesting and well placed as the well-to-do mother running out of patience and willingness to support her self-destructive son. Larson was interesting and good as the brilliant student writer. Michael Kenneth Williams (as loan shark Neville Baraka) was very good and, at times, riveting. John Goodman (as Frank another loan shark) was absolutely commanding and it was him that elevated this film. William Monahan wrote an, at times, interesting, playful and poignant script. Rupert Wyatt directed this film and I’m not sure Wahlberg was the best choice to be the lead.

Overall:  The interesting gambling scenes did not make up for the overall mediocre plot execution.

In Secret

First Hit:  Premise was pretty good but the execution was below fair.

A sexually repressed Therese (Elizabeth Olsen) who was trapped into a marriage with Camille (Tom Felton) by Camille’s mother Madame Raquin (Jessica Lange) finds herself sexually attracted to Laurent (Oscar Isaac) who is the Raquin’s family friend.

While living in Paris, Laurent and Therese begin an affair by his sneaking up the back way to where Therese, Camille, and Madame Raquin live. And there is where the film's script didn't work well. I found it odd that people could yell up and down the stairs to each other to communicate but the noise the Laurent and Therese would make while making love was not heard by anyone in the house or shop below.

The couple wants to spend all their time together so they come up with a plan to kill Camille. The opportunity presents itself when they are rowing on a lake. Camille doesn’t know how to swim and when Laurent hits him in the head with a paddle – he dies. The guilt ridden couple begins to implode with their feelings and guilt ridden angst.

Lange was strong as the controlling mother who manipulated the people around her. Olsen was good as the sexually repressed woman looking for a life far different than the one she finds herself in. Felton was very good as the sickly repressed son. Isaac was OK as the love interest but just didn’t think he possessed the character that made the story work. Charlie Stratton wrote a lifeless screen play, which was made worse by Stratton’s own direction.

Overall:  This film started with a few moments of promise but faded into boredom and writer and director self-absorption.