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Actors: William H. Macy, Alec Baldwin, Maria Bello, Paul Sorvino
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| Review Summary and Plot Commentary about The Cooler |
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A casino uses an unlucky man, Bernie, as a cooler, a person who causes problems for winning players. Bernie is the best cooler in the business, but he plans on leaving the casino in a week.
To keep Bernie around, Shelley, the part casino owner hires a waitress, Natalie, to date him. But Natalie falls in love with Bernie and he falls in love with her.
With a new outlook on life, lady luck smiles on Bernie. Suddenly everyone that comes in contact with Bernie goes on a lucky streak.
Not wanting to lose Bernie and his bad luck, Shelley ships Natalie off to another casino, but Natalie comes back. Shelley slaps her around, but she refuses to leave Bernie.
Bernie tries talking to Shelley, but it's no use. Bernie owes Shelley money and Shelley won't let him leave. So, Bernie, a former gambler, uses his new found luck to win a lot of money so he and Natalie can get away.
Unhappy with the way Shelley has let the casino diminish, the other owner has him killed. Once out of town, Bernie and Natalie get pulled over by a hitman posing as a cop. However, lady luck shines on Bernie one last time as the hitman is killed by a drunk driver before he can shoot Bernie and Natalie who ride off into the sunset.
--Brandon Swenson, Resident Scholar
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Bernie Lootz (Macy) is such a loser that his mere proximity makes other people lose too. This is great for Shelly Kaplow (Baldwin), the manager of the Shangri-La, last of the old mob-run casinos in Vegas, to whom Bernie has owed a lot of money, because Shelly uses Bernie as his "cooler" -- a guy who wanders from table to card game, killing high rollers' luck. But Bernie has almost paid off his debt to Shelly and wants to move on, just as Shelly's bosses want to demolish the Shangri-La and rebuild along the lines of the more glitzy, family-entertainment casinos along the Strip. Bernie's luck changes in a couple different ways when he falls for a gorgeous young waitress named Natalie (Bello), and his long-estranged son shows up with a pregnant girlfriend, looking for money. This 2003 gem, co-written and directed on a shoestring by Wayne Kramer, is both tense and romantic/sexy. All the leads are wonderful (Bello's features seem cut from the same mold as Sharon Stone and Naomi Watts), but this was a role Macy was born to play, and Baldwin is ferociously riveting as a street-smart villain with certain odd values of his own. Paul Sorvino has a spiky cameo as a heroin-addicted lounge singer on the fast track down.
--David Loftus, Resident Scholar
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| Analysis of The Cooler |
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Time/era of movie:
- present (2000-2010)
Crime & Scandal
Yes
Story of
- casino crime
Main Character
Identity:
- Male
Profession/status:
- gambler
Age:
- 40's-50's
Eccentric:
Yes
- eccentric
- deluded
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events?
Yes
Hair color?
- brunette (Brown)
Hair type
- (man) short/standard straight
Body type
- (man) very skinny
- (man) average
Unclothed?
- Chest
- Full Frontal
Events of movie makes character more...
- caring
- happy
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
How sensitive is this character?
- sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor?
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
Physique
- average physique
- healthy but a geeky weakling
Secondary Main Character
Identity:
- Female
Hair color
- blonde
Hair style
- (woman) short/butch/lez
- (woman) medium/shoulderlgn straight
Body type
- (woman) average
Unclothed?
- buttocks and chest
How much in movie?
- 80%
- 90%-100%
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
Main Adversary
Identity:
- Male
Age:
- 40's-50's
Profession/status:
- business executive
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- 60%
- 80%
Hair color
- brunette (Brown)
Hair type
- (man) short/standard straight
Body type
- (man) average
- (man) muscular
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
How sensitive is this character?
- mean, arrogant
Sense of humor
- Cynical sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- average physique
Setting
United States
Yes
The US:
- Southwest
City?
Yes
City:
- dangerous
- Las Vegas
Misc setting
- resort/hotel
Style
Accounts of torture and death?
- no torture/death
- generic/vague references to death/punishment
Movie makes you feel...
- very happy
- concerned
Sex/nudity in movie?
Yes
What kind of sex:
- kissing
- touching of personal anatomy
- licking
- actual description of sex
- seeing breasts
- seeing nude female butt
- seeing nude male butt
- seeing full frontal--women
- seeing full frontal--men
Any profanity?
- Some foul language
If soundtrack VERY NOTICEABLE...
- Jazz/r&b
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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