Unlike Karel Reisz and James Toback's original 1974 Gambler, the Mark Wahlberg-led update assumes a belief in gambling addiction. Someone who loses thousands upon thousands to roulette was probably born that way. As if to vindicate a remake, writer William Monahan (The Departed) twists his leading man's destructive personality even tighter.
The Gambler 2014 becomes a movie about bulls****ing — to friends, to family, to self, with Wahlberg's Jim Bennett the source of his own problem. Steeped in crime saga tropes, the film examines the fine line between existentialism and self-absorption, filibustering with f-bombs to conjure hard-R poetry. Slight in retrospect, Monahan's electric dialogue keeps The Gambler engaging from its very first hand.
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