Review of Croupier, The

Introduction

Clive Owen is Jack Manfred, a struggling author who lives with romantic girlfriend Marion (Gina McKee). His father pulls a few strings and gets the reluctant Jack a job interview at the Golden Lion casino. He takes the job as a croupier in part to find inspiration for his work and part to pay the rent. He never gets involved personally in the goings on of the casino or its punters and has a curious detached air about him whenever he works. He`s pretty straight forward and does as he`s told when following casino rules. He doesn`t bank on meeting the beautiful Jani (Alex Kingston) though and things change when she makes him an interesting proposition.

Video

The 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer is very crisp with solid colours and clean detailing throughout. I thought it was quite surprising since when I saw this film at the Warner Village West End it looked decidely darker and more gritty and I thought this lended itself well to the character of the film. What we have here works nearly as well and actually plays a little differently in that respect. The camera direction is good, but there are moments where the camera shakes for no reason like the crane needs oiling. Apart from this, the video side of things is very good.

Audio

We get a DD5.1 and DD2.0 soundtrack. Since this is more of a dialogue driven film, the sound here is very well defined. Everything is clear and precise from Clive Owen`s voiceover to the wide ranging sound bouncing from around you. It`s not a surround fest, but it does have a nice wide soundstage which surprised me. Very effective.

Features

The slick looking static menus lead to commentary with director Mike Hodges, trailer and subtitling/audio options. There`s audio description here too which is very good and more of this would be a welcome addition to show that DVD really is a medium for everyone.

The commentary is good to listen to if you get a chance to though Hodges doesn`t talk as much as I might like. Nevertheless he does go into a fair amount of production stuff which I found to be quite insightful.

Conclusion

Directed by Mike Hodges (Get Carter) and written by Paul Mayersberg (The Man Who Fell To Earth), Croupier finally gets the recognition it deserves on DVD. Having been originally released in `99, it didn`t even make the tiniest of dents at the UK boxoffice. The films` success in the US however earned it a cinema re-release over here last year and that`s when I sat up and took notice. We finally have the DVD and it`s nothing short of quality on the video and sound front.

It`s an interesting slice of Jack`s (Clive Owen) life as he struggles to write a book, any book, and is then lured into a casino job care of his father where he observes gamblers, breaks the rules he sets out to follow, and finds his long needed writing inspiration. When he starts to get into his stride, the charming Jani (Alex Kingston) enters the fray. There is frequent monologue from Owen expressed by voice over, and while this may sound somewhat egocentric, it works surprisingly well despite some mundane musings.

The most obvious flaw however is the lack of attention given to the author in Jack`s character. It`s not really touched upon with much relevance and you`d be forgiven for forgetting about this aspect altogether. Seeing the finished book at the end of the film doesn`t satisfy enough because we don`t get involved with it.

Despite this storytelling downside, Croupier remains a very entertaining film. The quality of Hodges direction and the top notch cast turn in an impressive performance. Clive Owen shows just how adaptable he is as an actor working on the small and big screen and it`s a pleasure to watch him here. Owen`s croupier training before the film was made also shows surprisingly good skill. I was impressed. With the engaging cast I found the 90 minute runtime simply flew by.

Clive Owen and/or Mike Hodges fans won`t be disappointed with this. If you`re in any doubt then Croupier is worth a rental at the very least so go see it already. This DVD comes recommended.