"From top to bottom of the ladder, greed is aroused without knowing where to find ultimate foothold. Nothing can calm it, since its goal is far beyond all it can attain. Reality seems valueless by comparison with the dreams of fevered imaginations; reality is therefore abandoned." Émile Durkheim (1858-1917), French sociologist.
"The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies and cuts through and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit." Gordon Gekko (1987), corporate raider in "Wall Street."
Although Hollywood is probably filled with executives more akin to Michael Douglas' character than those who might fall in line with Durkheim's mindset, mainstream movies certainly love to tell cautionary tales of people -- usually on the younger end of the life scale -- who get too big for their britches living the high life.
They're often lured in by seeing the glitz and glamour of such a lifestyle, adopt that as their own, and then don't realize when enough is enough, all of which eventually leads to some sort of partial or complete downfall. Charlie Sheen's character did so in "Wall Street," just like Tom Cruise's in "Risky Business" along with countless other examples.
One can now add Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess) to the mix. He's a bright and amiable kid who's headed from M.I.T. to Harvard Medical School. Yet, his $8/hour job means he'd have to work more than 4 years 24/7 in order to make the $300,000 needed for his pending schooling.
Faster than one can say "sell your soul to the devil," Ben is made an offer by one of his professors (Kevin Spacey) who needs a replacement on his underground card-counting team. Initially reluctant, but realizing 37,500 hours of serving customers in a clothing store just won't cut it, and not wanting to take his mom's entire savings, Ben agrees.
Of course, it certainly doesn't hurt that a pretty face (that belonging to Kate "Blue Crush" Bosworth) is dangled out in his line of sight as pure bait. After a montage showing him (and thus us) the tricks of the trade, Ben becomes quite good at what he does, an important storytelling point since moviegoers love watching people who are ultra-proficient at what they do.
From that point on, and especially since we see the near end of the tale at the beginning (ugh, I hate when they do that), we know it's only a matter of time before the britches get tight, the head and ego become inflated, and the end of all the fun will be drawing near.
Just like most everyone knows the odds are stacked in the favor of the house in real-life casinos, there's little here the film can do to show seasoned viewers something they haven't already seen in such a tale. That lack of novelty certainly steals some of the film's thunder, particularly once things have been established and the storytelling ball has reached its zenith and is on the brink of rolling downhill. And Hollywood has yet to learn, realize and/or accept that it's particularly difficult to make the actual process of gambling exciting (notwithstanding those who love to watch televised card playing).
To be fair, Robert Luketic (best known for helming "Legally Blonde" and "Monster-in-Law") does keep things lively from a visual standpoint, with various directorial flourishes and lots of stylish editing often put into play. And the fact that Peter Steinfeld and Allan Loeb's screenplay (adapted from Ben Mezrich's book "Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions") is based on a true life incident certainly makes things fairly interesting, at least from a "how'd they manage to pull that off" standpoint.
Sturgess and Spacey are good in their respective roles, but Bosworth is less so in hers (due to little character depth or development), while Lawrence Fishburne brings some menacing intensity to his role as a dying breed sort of "loss prevention specialist" employed by the casinos to catch and dissuade card counters from doing their thing (which, while perfectly legal, is obviously frowned upon by the gaming industry). Josh Grad and Sam Golzari play the protag's initial friends who are confused and disappointed that he ends up blowing them off in favor of being a high roller.
"21" is certainly easy to watch, but just like knowing how things will turn out when a blackjack player holding a card count of 20 asks to be "hit" again, there's never any doubt about what's going to happen next. Better in the first half than in the second (when things get too formulaic, predictable, and don't know when to end), the film rates as a 5 out of 10.
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