Lucky You – C+

Released on DVD this week.


I thought the extended poker scene in Casino Royale (2006) - (B+) nearly grinded the film to a halt. So I approached this one with some trepidation and was surprised when it wasn’t a complete bust. Eric Bana plays smooth-talking Huck, a gambling degenerate who is trying to get into the World Series of Poker. He is superb at reading the other players and bluffing, but his tendency to play from the gut keeps him in the hole. The always reliable Robert Duvall plays his father who has won the Tournament twice. Their unresolved issues concerning Huck’s mother drive the film.

At over 2 hours, the movie feels long and has too many anecdotes about Huck snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Drew Barrymore is Huck’s new love interest and she’s only playing herself. She really hasn’t shown any depth since 1982. The other secondary characters are borderline horrible. One of Huck’s male friends recently got breast implants, another (played by Horatio Sanz) already has man-boobs. (Insert Horatio Hornblower joke here).

Director Curtis Hanson (L.A. Confidential) does his best with this retread of a story. His best contribution is the source music – including the criminally underrated “Lucky Town” by Springsteen. There’s not one song that misses its mark – except the one that Barrymore sings - yikes. Hanson’s mechanics are as solid as you would expect from a veteran professional. Speaking of pros, Duvall does his usual Southern-fried stammering shtick (which I love). It’s too soon to tell if Bana has any real staying power, but the camera definitely loves him. He just needs to take a page out of Duvall’s book and loosen up. If they could have trimmed 15-20 minutes off and focused on the Bana-Duvall stuff, it would have played better. C+


P.S.: If you must watch one of these obsessive tournament movies with the father-son thing and great songs, The Color of Money (B+) will do.