by John Zenoni
I hate to say it but what a disappointment I found with Paul Schrader’s latest film, ‘The Card Counter.’ He has written or co-written screenplays for four Martin Scorsese films: ‘Taxi Driver’, ‘Raging Bull’, ‘The Last Temptation of Christ’, and ‘Bringing Out the Dead.’ But he's probably most known for directing the film that made Richard Gere a household name, ‘American Gigolo.’ Based on the trailers I had seen I was really looking forward to seeing it.
There were some good moments in the film and it really had promise but when you look at it all together it just doesn’t make sense. You have a storyline dealing with a former military person who suffers under his command at Guantanamo and ends up serving prison time for following orders. And during that time becomes an extremely good card player. Upon release, he just goes from casino to casino winning money but keeping it low enough to not attract too much attention. Then he encounters someone’s son whose father served with him while at Guantanamo, but took his life due to everything that happened there. So he decides to try and help him if possible. Finally, you throw in the comic/drama/love interest which I did not expect. It just never all came together for me, especially the ending, which made no sense at all. The other thing is this film was too long and definitely should have been edited more as some scenes were just boring and not needed.
I'm glad this one was a screener as I would have been disappointed had I spent money at the theater on it.
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