150 Word Review: 'Croupier' (1998)
You've got to know when to hold 'em
Clive Owen is a gaunt but boyish novelist named Jack who narrates his graveyard shifts as a croupier—the French word for someone who runs a blackjack table or spins a roulette wheel—at a seedy London casino in director Matt Ho’s very '90s crime drama Croupier.
Jack talks like one of Mikey Spillane’s hardboiled street toughs. But he’s just a writer who loves a fedora.
This movie was a breakthrough for Owen, who is everything that would make him a star in this low-budget journey into the gambling underworld. Owen is a naturally soulful actor, vulnerable and intense, and his Jack is a chav with a heart and a grinning shark for a father.
Jack prides himself on never playing cards but bets on a plot to rip off the house anyway. There are plenty of double-crosses and a first-rate performance from Alex Kingston as a seductive dame playing the tables.