ArtsEtc.

‘21’ film worth counting on

A truly thrilling film succeeds when it keeps an audience captivated and hanging on the edge of their seat. Unfortunately, some directors focus so much on achieving this effect that the thrills not only seem forced but also overly dramatic, to the point of actually pushing the audience out of their seats and out the door. Luckily, the overdramatized “21” manages to pull the audience back into their seats thanks to an enticing story.

In creating the film, the writers ended up changing a majority of the plot and characters in order to produce a movie that has little relation to the nonfiction novel which the film is supposedly based on, “Bringing Down the House” by Ben Mezrich. While gutting the bestseller’s lively characters to fit a Hollywood vision was a bad move, the plot at least still proves enjoyable.

The story begins with Ben Campbell, (Jim Sturgess, “The Other Boleyn Girl”) a mathematical genius studying at MIT, getting recruited into a shady blackjack group of equally talented whizzes. The troupe is led by professor Micky Rosa, excellently played with an unscrupulously charismatic demeanor by Kevin Spacey (“Superman Returns”). Rosa leads his team to Las Vegas to use their stunning card-counting abilities to win millions at the casinos.

As if it was not controversial enough that the creators of “21” decided to have a predominately white cast when almost all the characters in the novel are Asian American, the writers decided to justify the removal of these well-established characters by replacing them with a group of tiresome, flat characters.

Besides Micky, Ben is the only character with any depth. He actually has a back story and some reasoning for why he is involved in this scheme, which is much more than can be said for the other characters. They appear only as gray paint specks on the film’s palette and serve only to distract.

While the film does take some time to get going, the story really starts to heat up as soon as the team makes their first trip to Vegas. Expert cinematography animates the film by taking advantage of the electric atmosphere of Vegas’ neon-laden streets and flashy casinos.

It always helps when all of the story’s plot threads come back together at the end. Extra care is taken in the movie to make sure that threads are not started and then just left behind frayed. The film comes back to every aspect brought up to create a complete story.

And yet, as fantastic as the story and the Vegas scenes are, “21” proves once again that playing cards is definitely not a spectator sport. Very few movies seem able to make this activity fun to watch.

With his performance, Sturgess demonstrates that he has more than just a great head of hair. His transformation from a shy nerd to a money-driven card shark is both believable and entertaining. At the same time, his chemistry with his professor Rosa is infectious. If only the same thing could be said about the chemistry between his love-interest and teammate in the film, Jill Taylor (Kate Bosworth, “Superman Returns”).

But then again, it would be hard for anyone to start a spark with the emotionally nauseating Bosworth. When she is not drudging across the stage with her sort of ho-hum attitude, she is going overboard with her emotions. She has no acceptable middle ground that the audience can find enjoyable.

Adding to the melodramatic flair of the film is Cole Williams (Laurence Fishburne, “Bobby”) a nonthreatening casino security manager determined to keep the card-counters from winning millions in his casinos. The confrontations between Williams and the MIT team are so sensational that they become unconvincing, especially when compared to the accurate nerve-wracking encounters described in Meizner’s novel.

“21” is a great example of the pitfalls common when Hollywood takes a well-written novel and attempts to transform it into an equally enticing masterpiece on the big screen by adding a heap of drama on top. Despite the lack of the book’s character-driven thrills, this film is well-worth the trip to see a creative story, Spacey and Sturgess, and that alluring Vegas atmosphere.

 

3 stars out of 5