Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

LUCKY YOU
(PG-13; 124 minutes)

Bob’s Grade — C+

Remember the great Texas Hold ‘Em craze? Our national high-stakes poker fetish peaked back in ‘03, when it seemed half the country was watching the other half play cards for big bucks and multi-media fame. It may be too soon for nostalgia, but director and co-writer (with Eric Roth) Curtis Hanson revisit that world for “Lucky You,” a dealer’s-choice oddity about love, luck, family and rivalry.

Neither a flat-out comedy nor a compelling drama, it’s a reliably distracting fable about the need to value character more than card-playing.

If you judge by the trailer, “Lucky You” is a sweet-minded romance set in Las Vegas, with Eric Bana and Drew Barrymore cooing and cuddling while staring at the Bellagio’s magical, motorized waterworks display. But that’s a sharpie’s hustle, designed to suck you into the game.

Bana’s character is the colorfully named Huck Cheever, a restless, hot-tempered Vegas resident whose gambling career keeps him usually broke. He’s an excellent player, but he tends to be impulsive. And although struggling lounge singer Billie Offer (Barrymore) does distract him (and us) from the tables, the movie’s main emotional conflict is between Huck and a crusty, taunting poker champion who lords it over the younger, less successful player. Wouldn’t you know, the old dude is Huck’s daddy, L.C. Cheever (Robert Duvall), a two-time World Series of Poker trophy winner.

Ah, lucky us. Duvall pretty much leaves the rest of the cast scrambling for crumbs as he coolly consumes the heart of every scene he’s in. And while L.C. is emotionally whipping his full-grown boy like a recalcitrant pup, poor Huck struggles to prove himself in the big game while wooing the understandably cautious Billie.

Bana (”Troy,” “Munich,” “Hulk”) carries tension well — even the huge bundle of it that he’s saddled with here. He’s the kind of loser you wish could start winning, and that’s the pull that keeps us betting instead of folding.

The sure-handed Hanson (”8 Mile,” “Wonder Boys,” “L.A. Confidential”) brings brisk pacing and authentic atmosphere (even though the casino sequences were shot on sound stages). Roth (three Oscar nominations, a win for “Forrest Gump”) contributes rhythmic, rolling repartee and well-tuned exposition.

High-stress card games are nothing new in movies. Think of James Bond, “Maverick” and “The Cincinnati Kid” (a longtime favorite). “Lucky You” deals its cards flamboyantly — the players are entertaining eccentrics, some portrayed by real-life gamblers and the more prominent ones by character actors with amusing quirks.
And unlike many gambling sprees, “Lucky You” doesn’t descend into total despair. Stay after the credits and you’re more likely to leave the theater laughing.