New flick not so 'cool'

By Mathew Jaster
A&E Editor

With its vintage look and '70s sensibilities, The Cooler takes an insightful look at the losers working the gambling tables of Las Vegas. Although plenty of casino patrons know what a losing streak feels like, nobody knows it better than Bernie Lootz (William H. Macy).

Lootz is the very definition of bad luck. He can walk to any table in the casino or lean up against any slot machine and help the house get its money back. This is why he spends all his time at the Shangri-La Hotel and Casino. After racking up a miserable gambling debt and getting some mob-related work done on his knee, Lootz agrees to work at the Shangri-La as the resident "cooler" to pay off his debt.

Day in and day out, Lootz walks the casino floor, spreading his bad luck and his constant failure to any gambler on a hot streak. Shelly Kaplow (Alec Baldwin), owner of the Shangri-La, is convinced that Lootz actually saves him some money on a regular basis by passing his bad luck on to everybody else.

As the film begins, however, Lootz has only one week to finish off his debt. He's paid Kaplow back and he's ready to leave sin city to make a new life for himself. A cocktail waitress named Natalie (Maria Bello) changes his plans.

The Cooler begins as a smartly written character study on the loneliness and isolation of Las Vegas. Though this theme has been examined in hundreds of films, it's satisfying to see actors like Macy and Baldwin give the material a kick in the tailored pants.

First time director Wayne Kramer sets up the story to explore how a city once run by gangsters, players and lounge singers has transformed into a marketing campaign, a Vegas that is more about postcards and souvenirs than card games and craps tables.

But the fast-paced, quick-witted script comes to a gigantic halt by the middle of the film. A sub-plot involving Lootz's son and his pregnant girlfriend seems like nothing but a carefully placed plot device. The relationship between Lootz and casino owner Kaplow is confusing; one minute they hate each other, the next minute everything's OK. It's the discrepancies in the story and plot that make the film harder to digest.

Lootz's luck suffers the same fate. At the beginning of the film, the guy is such a loser, he can't get cream in his coffee. His plants are all dead, and his cat doesn't even have the strength to stay with him.

By the middle, things have turned around and he's riding a world-class winning streak. It's believable that some things could turn around for Lootz and that luck would finally deal him a good hand, but nobody gets this lucky.

The predicament at the end of the film comes off like a slapstick comedy. The Cooler doesn't have the same spunk it had earlier in the film. The dark underbelly of Vegas has been replaced by a laugh track and a love story. It's as if the Farrelly brothers were asked to direct Leaving Las Vegas.

If there's anything left to praise in the film, it would have to be the performance of Alec Baldwin as Kaplow. Here's a guy trying to keep every aspect of vintage Las Vegas alive and well, from the old school Sinatra tunes to the baseball bat as a negotiator.

Baldwin plays a seedy little scumbag better than anyone in Hollywood. Facing off against financial adviser Larry Sokolov (Ron Livingston), Kaplow attempts to fight off the corporate hierarchy that wants to redesign the Shangri-La, starting with the wallpaper. It's the idea that Vegas is turning into Disneyland that seems more interesting than the fantastic love affair between Bernie and the cocktail waitress.

For all its clever shots and snappy dialogue, The Cooler doesn't quite live up to anything more than a romantic comedy hiding behind a '70s gangster flick. Strong performances from Baldwin, Bello and Macy seem overshadowed by a trite screenplay and a preposterous plot. It's as if halfway through the film, luck really took a turn for the worse.