Mark Wahlberg shines in slick ‘Gambler’ remake

  • By Robert Horton Herald Movie Critic
  • Tuesday, December 23, 2014 5:03pm
  • LifeGo-See-Do

Movie stars come from the unlikeliest places. Take the case of one Mark Wahlberg, for example.

In youth, Wahlberg was a juvenile delinquent, with a criminal record that has recently made the news because of his efforts to obtain an official pardon. The younger brother of a boy-band star, Wahlberg started rapping as Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch, followed by a brief career as an underwear model — a sorry résumé, an instant laughingstock.

By all rights, the guy should’ve been relegated to cable-TV “Remember the 90s” specials by now. Instead, Wahlberg has been a bankable movie star since “Boogie Nights,” and a reliably strong anchor for action movies and comedies alike.

He’s also smart enough to recognize that juicy supporting parts (a comic stud in “Date Night,” an aggressive skeptic in “The Departed”) can only bolster his image, and establish his range. The lesson: Don’t look at the résumé. Look at the screen.

Wahlberg’s new film, “The Gambler,” presents a case in point. The movie has its roots in Dostoyevsky and a thoughtful, near-classic ’70s film. The lead role is a failed novelist and university professor, whose gambling problem and apparent death wish is at the crux of the story.

Not a Mark Wahlberg role, in short. But he plays it, and he’s terrific.

Wahlberg’s character, Jim Bennett, has a great deal to feel burned out about. He’s disgusted with his career as a writer, he insults his students, and he asks his mother (Jessica Lange) for enormous amounts of money.

He needs the bread because he’s in debt to bad people: Asian mobsters, a sleek loan shark (Michael Kenneth Williams, from “Boardwalk Empire”), and a seriously lethal gangster (John Goodman, in primo form). He has one talented student (Brie Larson, the gifted actress from “Short Term 12”) who knows about his gambling.

With her character, William Monahan’s script steers a little too closely toward the cliché of the younger woman who redeems the exhausted hero — but there are some surprises mixed in, too.

The film is adapted from the 1974 picture written by the eccentric James Toback and starring James Caan. The new one is a slicker affair, but Monahan is a clever dialogue writer (he did “The Departed”) and director Rupert Wyatt (“Rise of the Planet of the Apes”) keeps the pulse going.

It wastes no time: In the opening sequence, we see Jim Bennett unhesitatingly throwing down fat wagers at a blackjack table — he refuses to set aside any winnings — and within moments the stakes are set for the rest of the movie.

Wyatt’s vision of L.A.’s steel-blue underworld is just a few blocks over from the stylized place we saw in “Nightcrawler” and “Drive.” Are there really gangsters who frequent steam rooms and Korean gambling dens and speak with the elegance of John Goodman’s barn-burning soliloquies? No, but the film makes it all persuasive.

Wyatt isn’t as interested in psychological digging, although there’s something intriguing about Bennett’s assertions that he isn’t actually a gambler. (Maybe he just really wants to lose, in every sense.) But sometimes plot can carry the day, and the strands of “The Gambler” — Jim parlaying his various debts against each other, and betting on a basketball game — are skillfully played.

Will you buy Wahlberg as a literature professor? Maybe not, and yet the actor spits out dialogue and stares down goons with complete authority. The exhaustion seems real, too — Wahlberg looks drawn, much less robust than when he’s battling robots or talking to animatronic teddy bears.

We are in that realm that is less about acting and more about the mysterious power of movie stardom. And in those terms, Mark Wahlberg has successfully doubled down.

“The Gambler” (3 1/2 stars)

A slick but entertaining remake of the 1974 James Caan film, with Mark Wahlberg capably taking the role of a literature professor whose gambling debts are dangerously high. Director Rupert Wyatt keeps the pulse going, and Brie Larson and John Goodman provide sterling supporting turns.

Rating: R, for violence, subject matter, language

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Life

Brandon Hailey of Cytrus, center, plays the saxophone during a headlining show at Madam Lou’s on Friday, Dec. 29, 2023 in Seattle, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Lynnwood-based funk octet Cytrus has the juice

Resilience and brotherhood take center stage with ‘friends-first’ band.

FILE - In this April 11, 2014 file photo, Neko Case performs at the Coachella Music and Arts Festival in Indio, Calif. Fire investigators are looking for the cause of a fire on Monday, Sept. 18, 2017, that heavily damaged Case’s 225-year-old Vermont home. There were no injuries, though a barn was destroyed. It took firefighters two hours to extinguish the blaze. (Photo by Scott Roth/Invision/AP, File)
Music, theater and more: What’s happening in Snohomish County

Singer-songwriter Neko Case, an indie music icon from Tacoma, performs Sunday in Edmonds.

Dominic Arizona Bonuccelli
Tangier’s market boasts piles of fruits, veggies, and olives, countless varieties of bread, and nonperishables, like clothing and electronics.
Rick Steves on the cultural kaleidoscope of Tangier in Morocco

Walking through the city, I think to myself, “How could anyone be in southern Spain — so close — and not hop over to experience this wonderland?”

chris elliott.
Vrbo promised to cover her rental bill in Hawaii, so why won’t it?

When Cheryl Mander’s Vrbo rental in Hawaii is uninhabitable, the rental platform agrees to cover her new accommodations. But then it backs out. What happened?

The Moonlight Swing Orchestra will play classic sounds of the Big Band Era on April 21 in Everett. (submitted photo)
Music, theater and more: What’s happening in Snohomish County

Relive the Big Band Era at the Port Gardner Music Society’s final concert of the season in Everett.

2024 Honda Ridgeline TrailSport AWD (Honda)
2024 Honda Ridgeline TrailSport AWD

Honda cedes big boy pickup trucks to the likes of Ford, Dodge… Continue reading

Would you want to give something as elaborate as this a name as mundane as “bread box”? A French Provincial piece practically demands the French name panetiere.
A panetiere isn’t your modern bread box. It’s a treasure of French culture

This elaborately carved French antique may be old, but it’s still capable of keeping its leavened contents perfectly fresh.

(Judy Newton / Great Plant Picks)
Great Plant Pick: Mouse plant

What: Arisarum proboscideum, also known as mouse plant, is an herbaceous woodland… Continue reading

Bright green Japanese maple leaves are illuminated by spring sunlight. (Getty Images)
Confessions of a ‘plantophile’: I’m a bit of a junky for Japanese maples

In fact, my addiction to these glorious, all-season specimens seems to be contagious. Fortunately, there’s no known cure.

2024 Hyundai IONIQ 6 Limited (Hyundai)
2024 Hyundai IONIQ 6 Limited

The 2024 Hyundai IONIQ 6 Limited is a sporty, all-electric, all-wheel drive sedan that will quickly win your heart.

The 2024 Dodge Hornet R/T hybrid’s face has the twin red lines signifying the brand’s focus on performance. (Dodge)
2024 Hornet R/T is first electrified performance vehicle from Dodge

The all-new compact SUV travels 32 miles on pure electric power, and up to 360 miles in hybrid mode.

Don’t blow a bundle on glass supposedly made by the Henry William Stiegel

Why? Faked signatures, reused molds and imitated styles can make it unclear who actually made any given piece of glass.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.