Croupier
1998 Directed by Mike Hodges
Synopsis
A thriller set against the dark backdrop of London's gambling world. Clive Owen is Jack Manfred, an aspiring writer, forced to take a job as a croupier to make ends meet. The job gradually takes over his life, affecting his relationship with lover Marion (Gina McKee). Jack is approached by Jani (Alex Kingston), a gambler who is down on her luck, to be the inside man during a heist at the casino where he works. Jack carefully considers the odds; it all looks so simple, but even a professional like Jack cannot anticipate what the final turn of the wheel will bring...
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Known for the Michael Caine led crime classic Get Carter (which I haven’t seen yet), Mike Hodges’ nineties Croupier is as lustrous as movies come. Starring Clive Owen as our titular croupier (a casino dealer to the less intellectual of us) otherwise named Jack Manfred, Croupier details the life and soul of a character tormented and disinterested by all that come across him. Jack wants to finish his novel and through some riveting narration by the man himself, it becomes apparent (or seems to be) that the story we are watching is the very same story Jack, or Jake as the protagonist in his novel is named, is writing. Croupier is a devilish film. It analyses a character whose motivation…
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Welcome back Jack, to the house of addiction.
-JackIt's easy to see why Clive Owen was once rumored to be the next James Bond. Here he plays Jack, a struggling writer who's working as a croupier at a casino, the farthest thing from being a spy and yet he still displays the characteristics we'd associate with 007. It also feels like a warm up for Sin City, as this neo-noir has a running voice over from Owen from beginning to end. This one is in third person however as we're inside his head as he's writing a book about his experiences.
It's one of director Mike Hodges' better films, but it's mostly because of Paul Mayersberg's script. The story…
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It had been awhile since I had seen this film. I think it may be my first revisit. I won't wait so long for the next time. I had honestly forgot that Clive Owens was in it. As I discovered this deconstructed neo-noir, set in a small English casino, all over again, this fact faded again. The character details, the winding plot, and the setting tricked me into becoming involved. The themes of the movie felt particularly current to me. The direction of the film is very subtle and points away from the empty slight of hand which infects many current films. I found the resolution to be apt and a step up from the gotcha twists which are far too prevalent these days. It opens the movie up in more dimensions than the merely linear. The whole thing just works for me.
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One of those terribly British jigsaws of wit that might work better as a novel than a film but succeeds in large part thanks to its lead, the young Clive Owen, and its familiar tropes about authorship spun around (and around) by the role of chance that the casino setting affords the story.
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A slick, smartly written, neo-noir casino thriller. Nice twist too.
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Clive Owen stars as a writer who takes on the role of a croupier in the tense world of the casino.
The narration in the film is extreme but fits in with Owen’s role as a writer. It also provides an identity shift within Owen as he becomes the character he is researching for his book. The film also delves into the world of gambling and the rules that are conveyed to him set up a lot of the tension. His girlfriend also has a job as a store detective which provides a great counterpoint.
The film provides endless possibilities and it is hard to comprehend where it will lead. Thankfully the final act does not turn into a drama…
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Welcome back Jack, to the house of addiction.
-JackIt's easy to see why Clive Owen was once rumored to be the next James Bond. Here he plays Jack, a struggling writer who's working as a croupier at a casino, the farthest thing from being a spy and yet he still displays the characteristics we'd associate with 007. It also feels like a warm up for Sin City, as this neo-noir has a running voice over from Owen from beginning to end. This one is in third person however as we're inside his head as he's writing a book about his experiences.
It's one of director Mike Hodges' better films, but it's mostly because of Paul Mayersberg's script. The story…
-
Known for the Michael Caine led crime classic Get Carter (which I haven’t seen yet), Mike Hodges’ nineties Croupier is as lustrous as movies come. Starring Clive Owen as our titular croupier (a casino dealer to the less intellectual of us) otherwise named Jack Manfred, Croupier details the life and soul of a character tormented and disinterested by all that come across him. Jack wants to finish his novel and through some riveting narration by the man himself, it becomes apparent (or seems to be) that the story we are watching is the very same story Jack, or Jake as the protagonist in his novel is named, is writing. Croupier is a devilish film. It analyses a character whose motivation…
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One of the best neo-noirs made since Body Heat. Mike Hodges knows the genre and knows how to bend its rules to create something fresh and exciting.
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Clive Owen is endlessly watchable. Mike Hodges' neo-noir thriller follows Owen's character Jack Manfred who is an aspiring writer who takes a job as a croupier working in a, of course, a casino. Jack begins to draw on his work experience to aid his writing and we get the sense that he gets involved with a girl and some unsavory types to "spice up" his own life from which he can then draw to produce a great piece of fiction. The noir style and substance is solid enough, but its Owen's usual wonderful work that sells the somewhat-seen-before material. With CROUPIER, Owen became familiar to American audiences and quickly became one of my favorite actors.
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It had been awhile since I had seen this film. I think it may be my first revisit. I won't wait so long for the next time. I had honestly forgot that Clive Owens was in it. As I discovered this deconstructed neo-noir, set in a small English casino, all over again, this fact faded again. The character details, the winding plot, and the setting tricked me into becoming involved. The themes of the movie felt particularly current to me. The direction of the film is very subtle and points away from the empty slight of hand which infects many current films. I found the resolution to be apt and a step up from the gotcha twists which are far too prevalent these days. It opens the movie up in more dimensions than the merely linear. The whole thing just works for me.
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Clive Owen excels as the cool, sleek polished author working as a Croupier to pay the rent. Without a doubt, one of the finest British films of the nineties.