SnoopyStyle Beth (Rebecca Hall) is stripping in private homes to make ends meet. On the advise of motel neighbor Holly (Laura Prepon), she goes to work for bookie Dink (Bruce Willis) and finds that she's actually quite good at it. She's good with numbers. People like dealing with her on the phone. And Dink likes her a lot. The problem is Dink's wife Tulip (Catherine Zeta-Jones) doesn't want him to like her so much. When Dink starts to lose money, things blow up.When you consider the talents in front of and behind the camera, it's a wonder how things could go so wrong. Award winning director Stephen Frears is the biggest culprit. The script may need better jokes, but it's mainly Frears who couldn't extract any laughs from this. In the end, this is mostly his responsibility.Rebecca Hall is doing a squeaky-voice fast-talking bobble head doll. It's completely fake, and leaves my head shaking. It doesn't fit her at all. If her mannerisms are meant to be funny, it got no laughs from me. Everybody else is doing a competent if not very impressive work. Catherine Zeta-Jones and Bruce Willis could have been an explosive couple but they're not. The only interesting acting comes from Vince Vaughn who plays a wildman bookie.Not much goes right in this movie. It is absolutely not funny. It is watchable, but afterward I wonder why I watched it.

john mayfield If you'd like to view a brief and startling master class in brilliant acting, watch Rebecca Hall in this and then go and see her in "The Appearance". It takes a while, at least it took me, a while to realize that this is truly the same remarkable actress lurking somewhere underneath two such very disparate characters. RH is apparently one of this current generation of Brits who find it incredibly easy to portray utterly convincing Americans. Witness the cast of True Blood, Walking Dead, and Vikings, fer yer good examples. I wonder what will become of her career... She is certainly in demand enough, from Woody Allen to Iron Man, but the roles are not true kick ass starmakers. Her danger is that she may remain appreciated but not adored, she is certainly not yet a household name although she is talented enough to be. Like a Meryl Streep waiting for the career making door opener of Sophies Choice she stands the danger of becoming successful without stardom, and parking her car forever in the second rows of small lots where the dreadful appellation of "beloved character actor" denies all any further expansion or exit. We will see what opportunities to supernova come her way. This film is a game, friendly and likable, supposedly true fable of modern Vegas, based on the central character's book, although true is always a flexible description in these matters. I don't recall any smoking or drinking or sex in the movie and although that is a pleasant omission to witness, this is supposed to be real life Nevada after all. Willis and Zeta-Jones make credible appearances as flawed but still admirable human beings, and the guy from Fringe shows up as a smiling and insignificant yet desirable male. Its nice to see big stars in small films, and I would love to know the inside story of how they were all somehow wooed into this one. Probably Willis first, then the rest followed. Its Hall who gives the movie any weight and memorability however, I have watched it twice now just to see her upside down close up face as she stands on her head for the affable psychopath who wants to time her, and the so great way she says "lay" on the phone when BW teaches her how to call in a bet. See? Now you have to see it too, donchya? Donchya now huh?

Valerie Wilkinson So, why pick up a movie called "The Gambler" in Japanese. "Play the Favorite" actually is a line in the movie, a sort of key to the story. Answer: I like movies about games, I like "game theory" and hope for something like A Beautiful Mind. Hearts in Atlanta, 21, Moneyball. In fact, it was Joshua Jackson that pulled me. I went through "Fringe" with him, wanted to see him in something else. I actually didn't realize how high level the cast was! It kind of starts off like "Showgirls." Naive girl rolls into town, um, doesn't get a gig as cocktail waitress so, we aren't in the same story, and it isn't going to be the same story.Why did I watch it again and again? When her father laughed because Beth wants to leave Tallahasse for Los Vegas, and that scene worked for me. I liked her dog. I was already with Rebecca Hall as Beth much more deeply than I ever could with Vicky in "Vicky Cristina Barcelona". But on the other hand, and to be fair, I did not watch that movie three times in a row, hunting for it. What? The thing that makes it ring true, that pulls me in. I've driven up to a place, looked at it, decided it would do, and said, "I'll take it." Hit the pavement looking for a job.Enter Dink and face it, I love Bruce, I've loved him a long time, since "Moonlighting" and you've seen these kid actors, Harrison Ford, Michael Keaton, John Travolta, bursting with sex-appeal and self-confidence, and you've seen them getting older, and so here is Bruce being Dink, and I'm already with Beth, so there is an interview and she tells him everything, he tells her everything, he forgives her for being a kid, and he hires her, she is stoked and the movie kept me until the end. Catherine Zeta-Jones does a great job, Vince Vaughn makes his small but central part work. It's a sort of sad note that Joshua's Jeremy was just a bit too bland, but the core story of the two central people becoming real friends, overcoming the possible delusions of sex and infidelity worked. The chemistry of Bruce with Rebecca was spot on. I believed it and felt like that is a love that can hold the world together and a very good role for Rebecca.After I watched this movie again and again, I also understood more about the world, the games, and the characters. It was taken from Beth's true story. I should add that Catherine Zeta-Jones played her role to perfection, if you understand that the story is a true story of some real people, not a titillating fantasy.

Danielle If you can get through the excruciating first half of this movie, it's fairly entertaining. The first 45 minutes are confusing and dull as hell, and I almost turned it off (watching on DVD) because I just didn't care about the people or the events unfolding. How can you set a movie in Vegas, and have this amazing cast, and end up with such a mediocre result? It's based on a memoir that, by all accounts, is funny and extremely entertaining, but something clearly has been lost during the translation to the screen. The second half is better - it comes together, the characters become a bit more multi-dimensional, and there finally seems to be some point. But overall, this movie is a wasted opportunity and it's greatest value may be for insomniacs.