Hollywood is such a gamble these days.
Just look at the new blackjack thriller "21." You may be familiar with the true story on which it's based: In the 1990s, a cadre of math wizards from MIT (college kids like me, except, you know, smart) devised a successful system of card counting they used to bank millions during flashy weekends in Las Vegas. Though eventually caught and banned from many gambling establishments, their story became the stuff of legend and inspired the best-selling book "Bringing Down the House."
Little surprise that Hollywood sidled up to the table and anted in for their own version of the tale. Unfortunately for the real-life players, "21" is not the blackjack they deserved, but rather the inverse, a deadly "12" just begging to bust (for you non-players, that means
really bad.)
Puppy-eyed Jim Sturgess of "Across the Universe" fame plays Ben Campbell, a "good with numbers" MIT senior who needs a prestigious scholarship to attend pricey medical school at Harvard. Even with his new promotion at a men's clothing store - $8.00 an hour as assistant manager - Ben can't figure out how he'll come up with the $300,000 needed for Harvard.
"I always thought there was more to life than money," he announces out loud, a not-so-subtle hint at his upcoming character crisis.
When not impressing customers with his rapid price calculations on marked-down suits, Ben works with a couple nerdy friends (Josh Gad and Sam Golzari) on a science competition, rating the attractiveness of females in bars
during breaks.
After wowing his advanced math teacher, Professor Rosa (the ever icy Kevin Spacey), Ben is recruited to join a select group of math whizzes who lay their talents on the table - the blackjack table, counting cards as a team. Among them is campus hottie Jill (Kate Bosworth in a performance anyone could have given), someone Ben's had his eye on.
Oh, the coincidence.
Ben is reluctant at first, afraid of the risk involved. Rosa, the group's no-nonsense sponsor and former counter himself, reminds Ben that card counting is not illegal - it's simply using the probability-based formulas inherent in blackjack to strategically obtain a slight advantage over the house. Well, when you put it like that ... let's go win some money!
"21" bathes in the glitz and glamour of Las Vegas to a nauseating degree. Director Robert Luketic provides the requisite aerial shots of the city's nighttime skyline, shoving in montages of neon signs, towering hotels and busy boulevards. Vegas has always been an exaggerated dreamland, but Hollywood often confuses that with caricature, and Luketic, who doesn't have the artistic care to tell a captivating story, tries to pacify us with computer-generated piles of chips, music video editing and cheesy slow-motion. And the montages. My God the montages. This isn't a movie about blackjack players - it's Vegas porn.
Like the tell-all trailer promised, the group runs into a deck of problems, including a bullish casino boss (Laurence Fishburne) who doesn't appreciate the methods employed by Ben and company.
But because this supposedly important plot-thread has to compete for screen time with the nerdy friends (who aren't featured in the book) and the forced romance with Jill, it becomes lost in the shuffle.
But by far the most glaring error "21" pulls off is its refusal to accurately portray the real-life people of the story. Two of the major counters in reality were Asian-Americans, but Columbia Pictures, who financed the project, thought it better for their bottom line if the main characters here were familiar, pleasant Caucasians.
But they still gave parts to Asian-Americans: two supplemental counters (one is a comic-relief klepto with goofy hair, the other a "loser" who plays slots) and an anonymous counter who is beat up by Fishburne early in the film.
Hollywood has a history of "white-washing" minorities out of movies, and this one has received some major flack (there's even a Facebook group called
"Boycott 21").
It's a shame, because the real story is quite cool. Check out the book, but with "21," when it comes to "hit" or "stay," you need to stay.
Stay away.
bill fech is a senior english and film studies major. reach him at billfech@dailynebraskan.com
