Winner, winner, chicken dinner
March 29, 2008 | 06:19PM | maudie dot b - gmail d c | |
It's easy to spot the first timers. In a window seat or on the aisle, the first timers crane their neck to glimpse the view as the airplane makes it's approach for landing. First spotted are the lights on the horizon that spread out and sparkle like so many jewels thrown across a piece of black velvet.
As the plane descends and lines up with the runway, the first of the famous icons come into view. Coming in from the south a beam of light shooting straight to the heavens shines from the apex of the Luxor. The golden profile of Mandalay Bay, the emerald green glow of the MGM spark a jump in their heartbeats and all they want is to be on the ground, out the door and mingling with the high rollers, the glitz and the glam and take their shot at beating the town.
Las Vegas - a town true to every gambling cliché, every tawdry image, everything one has imagined it to be, pro and con.
I looked for that first Vegas moment in the new movie "21" starring Kevin Spacey (who also co-produced) and an up and coming actor Jim Sturgess. The movie makers didn't disappoint. They gave me my moment when young Ben Campbell, played by Sturgess, descends into Vegas for the first time.
Descends is an apt metaphor for the journey Sturgess' character takes in this tale, which is based on the best-seller Bringing Down the House
by Ben Mezrich. Mezrich's book recounts the true story of a team of MIT students who managed to extract a few million dollars from Vegas casinos via a Blackjack card-counting scheme in the early 1990's.
The screenwriter's did a good job of extracting the core of the true story and crafted a well-made, quasi modern-day morality tale with (mostly) believable characters and a plot that holds your interest. It was slow to start, however, spending too much time in the set-up before young Ben Campbell joins the team and heads with them to Vegas for his first big score.
I groaned a bit when we were introduced to Lawrence Fishburne's character, Cole Williams. Williams is a "Loss Prevention" specialist for the Hard Rock Casino. We learn he's an old schooler from the time when thugs and mobsters ruled the Vegas nights. Somewhat of a tired cliché. I forgave the writer's, though, for they addressed that fact, albeit weakly. However "hollywood" it may be, it upped the ante and gave the plot an element of life-threatening danger, not to mention a bit of a plot twist which helped the story come to a somewhat tidy close.
Of course there's the love interest as nerdy, but not bad looking Ben, nails the object of his admiration, Jill, played by the lovely Kate Bosworth. The team, itself, is made up of a tight ensemble of capable actors, although we don't get to know them as much as I would've liked.
Vegas doesn't overwhelm the story and I welcomed that. The pitfall could've been to make it about the city and all it's temptations, but the screenwriters did a good job of avoiding that trap. The scenes away from Vegas did more for giving us a feel for it's underbelly than could any back room bruiser scene.
Even with the slow pace in the first part and a somewhat formulaic plot, the movie is a good view and enjoyable. Spacey, as a co-producer, no doubt had a hand in keeping it from becoming trite. It's well cast and I would bet this could be a break-out role for Sturgess. My fellow poker bloggers, I know, would get a kick out of it, as I did, for the views of Vegas and the interiors of the casinos. And one or two or three, especially, for a brief mention of Sapphire.
I will forever remember my first Vegas moment - that first descent into the city of sin. It was a moment of excitement I wish I could recapture, but, you can only have one first. It's something I think about as each return to Vegas I am less entranced, less dazzled, and my heart doesn't race. If not for the people I'm going to see on each visit, Las Vegas would be tucked away in a photo album and only a remembrance in this blog.
Go see the movie. You will enjoy it, I'm sure.
