ROUNDERS (65)

Directed by: John Dahl

Starring: Matt Damon, Edward Norton, John Malkovich

The Pitch: A young law student tries to resist the lure of gambling, not helped by his irresponsible best friend.

Theo Sez: Obviously something in Damon's mix of vulnerability and golden-boy charm I respond to - this now makes three star vehicles I've found riddled with flaws yet strangely compelling - or maybe I'm just a sucker for the whole high-stakes-poker thing (given that I recognised most of the 'name' gamblers mentioned in the voice-over, and keep A. Alvarez' "The Biggest Game in Town" more or less permanently by my bedside) ; all of which is to make excuses for thoroughly enjoying a film so resolutely un-hip it might almost be a straight-faced variation on a 50s melodrama like THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM, starring Edward Norton as Kim Novak - decent hero tempted by addictive sickness, needy girlfriend begging him to stay on the straight and narrow, old-fashioned jazz score throbbing in the background. It is predictable and corny - a good deal cornier than THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM, in fact - and Malkovich's accent is distractingly hilarious, especially when you can't get its cartoon associations out of your head (thanks to Justin Siegel for ruining it for everybody else) ; yet I really can't think of another movie (THE CINCINNATI KID? A BIG HAND FOR THE LITTLE LADY?) so enamoured of the charged atmosphere of cards-playing, or so alert to the details (like the Sunday players, with their elaborate calls - "Check-o-slovakia!" - marking them out as rank amateurs). Not so hot otherwise, overwritten in terms of dialogue and grossly underwritten in terms of the female parts (both of them decorative, playing no part in the boys-only finale), not to mention Martin Landau in the mind-bogglingly hackneyed role of the old Jewish mentor ("Let me tell you a story," he says ; "We can't run from what we are," he says) ; but, whenever it goes near a card-table, it's quietly exhilarating. Bonus points for not giving Norton's truly reprehensible Worm any last-minute reprieve.