by kellie abrahamson kabrahamson1@aol.com
Grade: C- Rated PG13
Curtis Hanson is an Oscar winning writer/director who has made a name for himself in Hollywood for his daring and varied film choices. In his movies, Hanson has covered life in the Detroit ghetto, family drama in a geriatric community and 1950’s noir. The self-proclaimed movie buff now brings his passion for poker to the big screen. Eric Bana and Drew Barrymore take a gamble on love in Hanson’s latest effort, Lucky You.
It’s 2003 and poker mania is just hitting America thanks to televised tournaments and Internet poker rooms. Huck Cheever (Bana) is a career gambler, spending most of his days at Las Vegas casinos and his nights at the pawn shop selling stuff to fund another day’s worth of gambling. Huck learned nearly everything he knows about poker from his estranged father, L.C. (Robert Duvall), a two-time World Series of Poker Champion, and is trapped in the old man’s shadow. Often allowing his emotions to get the better of him at the table, particularly when L.C. is around, Huck is a good player, but not a great one. In order to prove to himself and his father that he has the skills to be a champion, Huck begins raising funds to compete in the upcoming World Series of Poker.
Huck soon finds a friend and possibly more in Billie Offer (Drew Barrymore), an aspiring singer who just rolled into town from Bakersfield. Billie is the exact opposite of Huck: optimistic, naive, idealistic and honest. Constantly drawn to “bad boys” so she can “fix them,” Billie becomes fascinated by Huck, whose skills at the poker table (bluffing, detachment, selfishness) have taken over every aspect of his life, keeping him from having a real relationship. Huck, too, finds himself entranced by Billie and the two become an unlikely couple. As the World Series of Poker draws closer, the two find themselves drifting apart due to their differences and must decide whether to let it ride or cash out.
The trailers for Lucky You suggest this is a romantic comedy, and that’s a little misleading in that it’s not particularly funny and the romance is fairly minimal. In truth, this is a sports drama about a guy who dreams of being a champion and happens to find love along the way. I’m not sure if the movie I had envisioned after watching the misleading trailer would have been any better, but the actual film didn’t really do anything for me. Huck is a terrible person. He steals from his friends, spends his days at the casino losing and blows any money he does end up winning on stupid pissing contests with his dad. The character is a self-destructive compulsive gambler who, in the end, is simply a slightly less self-destructive compulsive gambler. Moreover, the acting in Lucky You is mediocre. Barrymore and Duvall essentially play the same characters they’ve been playing for the past decade and Bana is only slightly better. Too many minor characters, presumably thrown in for laughs, bog down the story itself.
Robert Downey Jr., Debra Messing, Horatio Sans and Jean Smart all make appearances but add little to the film beyond giving it some “big name” bragging rights.
Lucky You isn’t necessarily a bad movie, but it’s not a good one either. The film does have a few fun scenes and you’ll certainly find yourself drawn into the poker games throughout, particularly if you enjoy that sort of thing already. Other than that, Lucky You is a run-of-the-mill drama that fails to impress on nearly every level.
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