21
directed by Robert Luketic
written by Peter Steinfeld and Allen Loeb
starring Jim Sturgess, Kate Bosworth, Laurence Fishburne, Kevin Spacey, Aaron Yoo

Based on the book, "Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions" by Ben Mezrich, this film has a psychological paucity at its core. It's an adequately constructed film, with occasionally great acting, but at its core it doesn't quite do enough to truly connect with its intended audience.

Desire rages as the bills accumulate in smart sets that can be creased, folded, manipulated at will. Ben Campbell (Sturgess) needs to pay for Harvard Med School. He's a crack student at M.I.T. with an impeccable resume. He's gunning for a scholarship but so are dozens of other kids who look equally impressive on paper. Out of desperation he joins a group of kids who use a provable formula to count cards in order to beat the house at blackjack in Vegas. Soon, he's saddling up to the hotshots and never-were's in Satan's den and making a killing for himself and the man who runs the show, his teacher Mickey Rosa (Spacey). His initial plan is to get out as soon as he's got the tuition but the best laid plans go to hell when you are on a roll.

The story deals with Ben's greed, hubris, and the seductiveness of cold, hard cash. The film is certainly well-lit; it captures the glare and shimmering necessity of the game tables although it fails to make the dizzying art of accumulating so much instant wealth particularly sexy. It's too rudimentary, there's no glamour. Indeed, the entire operations comes across as rather sickly and emaciated. It just doesn't look as fun as it really ought to be.

The performances in this film are adequate and get the point across. From the outset, it's apparent that Laurence Fishburne's character, Cole Williams, is going to dominate the film. We only get a flash of him but it's so decisively menacing that we can hardly wait to experience his return to the screen. Kevin Spacey offers quirky smiles and winks to convey a certain rakishness that comes across quite well. Jim Sturgess needs a bit more seediness in his walk and gestures once he comes face to face with the raging wall of monetary excess. Still, he gives his character a looseness and general affability that serves him well. Kate Bosworth is quite good providing her character with a softness, an almost gamine quality that comes off in her interactions with Ben. Her

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