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The
Cooler
  The
Cooler is an odd little movie. It features William
H. Macy, Alec
Baldwin and Maria Bello
(left) and is quirky enough at times to make you feel like you are watching a
fine film but also so chock full of clichéd dialog that
it is hard to stomach at certain points. The film tells the story of
a man who's luck is so bad that all he has to do is walk past tables in
a casino and any player nearby immediately begins to lose. A
cooler like this is a valuable commodity in Vegas of course and when
Macy decides it's time to move on, Baldwin's tough guy, old school
casino owner isn't about to let him go quietly. Enter Bello as a been through
the ringer cocktail waitress and suddenly Macy's luck begins to change. The
acting in the film is good for the most part with Baldwin doing a
more than convincing job as a scumbag tough guy and Ron
Livingston (that cool slacker from Office
Space) and Paul
Sorvino adding supporting roles. Macy is always engaging and
could have mailed this performance in so it's hard to tell whether
we should be impressed or not. There are several memorable sex scenes between
he and Bello that are oddly shot and would have added to the movie
if the dialog was redone to not include lines like; "I think,
no wait, I know that I love you." and "I moved out to
Vegas to be a showgirl." The ending also fails to deliver and there
is much unnecessary violence thrown on top of that which all adds up to a mostly
unsatisfying evening although somehow the movie sticks with you and
you feel like that on some level you've experienced something
legitimate. It's a shame since with different writing, this one
could have been a classic Vegas movie like Hard
Eight.
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