Deal (3/10)

by Tony Medley

I guess it is appropriate that this is an MGM picture, because it has the production values akin to a 1940s MGM B-movie. It starts off with loud, offputting music, music that continues for far too long. The story is derivative, the acting embarrassing. The first hour is almost interminable. It’s only saved, and then just a little, by the last 20 minutes.

This is a story about poker. Alex Stillman (Bret Harrison) is a young college graduate who forsakes his job with his father, Mr. Stillman (Gary Grubbs), to play poker. He’s seen, somehow, by oldtimer Tommy Vinson (Burt Reynolds) and taken under Tommy’s wing. Tommy gave up poker 20 years ago because his wife, Helen (Maria Mason) threatened to leave him if he didn’t give it up. But he is, apparently, a legend. Tommy’s buddy is Charlie Adler (Charles Durning). I couldn’t figure out why Charlie is in the movie, unless it was to give Durning some work. If so, Durning should have turned it down. I have fond memories of him in past movies, like “The Final Countdown” (1980) and many others. I will have to expunge this film from my memory to keep those fond ones because Charles looks old, emaciated, and forgettable.

After a few years as one of Hollywood’s favorite leading men, Reynolds has fallen on hard times. His hair is still black and he doesn’t have many wrinkles, but he moves like the old man he is. The lackluster directing (Gil Cates, Jr.) doesn’t do him any favors here.

There are so many negative aspects to this film, I don’t know where to stop, but I must mention Gary Grubbs. I first saw him (at least it’s the first time I remember him) as Captain Wiecek in “For Love and Honor” a 1980 TV series about the modern army that NBC pulled after three months. I thought it was very well done and that NBC chickened out on it too soon. I was impressed with Grubbs. He’s been around ever since and has lots of credits. But if the way he says his lines in this film epitomizes the state of his craft today, I don’t hold out much hope for him. It’s not just that the lines he is forced to utter are bad, which they are, or that the character he plays is poorly crafted, which it is. It’s that he says his lines like he’s reading them for the first time. It’s a telling comment on the thought that went into this film that they couldn’t even come up with a first name for his character.

Bret Harrison is a good looking kid with a nice smile, which is about all that can be said about his performance. The plot is so trite that everything that happens should be anticipated by anyone who has been going to the movies for at least a couple of years. The ending is telegraphed from here to Kansas.

Additional add on production values; near the end of the film there’s a cut to the TV commentators, one of whom is Vincent van Patten, paying himself. This is such a sloppy film that this scene is actually out of sync. It’s possible that the screening was a rough cut, but since it was only four days before opening, I doubt it.

About the last 20 minutes is the poker game. It’s not bad, but it’s pure Hollywood. If you want to watch poker, try ESPN.

I was looking forward to a good movie about poker. I still am.

April 22, 2008