Apple pie-cheeked Matt Damon (Good Will Hunting) plays Mike McDermott, a New York law student who plays poker to finance his education. When he loses his savings and girlfriend in a $30,000 hand to Teddy KGB (John Malkovich), Mike swears off poker. That is, until his old partner Worm (Edward Norton) resurfaces. Worm slides into his old habits, which include cheating, and drags Mike into a debt neither can afford not to pay.
There are great movies about gambling; this is not one of them. Director John Dahl has produced some offbeat and sometimes raunchy films like Red Rock West and The Last Seduction. Here, he has created a film that lacks the inspiration of The Gambler, the sexiness of Casino or the passion of any other movie about human weakness. We know gambling isn't glamorous, but there are no consequences for the characters in Rounders. Their weaknesses are rewarded.
To the film's credit, Edward Norton shines as Worm. He's heartless and selfish, and you have to love his decrepitude. That said, Norton's presence wipes Damon off the screen. We never truly sympathise with Damon's character; he makes stupid mistakes for an aspiring lawyer, he's too clean cut, and despite the bruised face he's never in any real danger of going belly up. In addition, Martin Landau's turn as a soft-spoken professor is a bit much to believe, especially when he lends ten grand to a student with a gambling problem. He supports Mike's vocation as gambler over lawyer because in his own past someone helped him choose between becoming a rabbi or a lawyer. Now, that's chutzpah. But after you get over Malkovich's Oreo-eating, lisping Russian Mafia guy and John Turturro's work-a-day mug, Rounders leaves a smarmy hand on the table.
