Film Review: 21

Director: Robert Luketic

The film was inspired by the true story of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Blackjack team that successfully made lots of money in casino's counting cards as told in the book Bringing down the House by Ben Merzrich. It was a book that I was planning on reading before seeing this film but it somehow slipped my mind, apparently the reality is very different from the film.

Professor Mickey Rosa (Kevin Spacey) and Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess)

The film follows Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess who seems to be little known before this role) as he hopes to get into Harvard Medical School but needs $300,000 or to get a scholarship by impressing the admissions director. Professor Mickey Rosa (Kevin Spacey) is impressed by his logic in solving a Monty Hall Problem in his class so gets him to join their blackjack team that hits the casinos of Las Vegas on weekends. The team makes a lot of money but also draw the attention of Security Chief Cole (Laurence Fishburn) who is employed to crackdown on cheating.

The original idea for the film is an intriguing one especially with the real life story to fall back on, there was a controversy over the cast being mostly white when the card counters in reality were mostly Asian-Americans. In terms of watching the film it doesn't make a huge difference, the problem you do have is conveying the excitement and thrill of gambling second hand. It's like gambling with fake money, you're only about 5% as excited compared to gambling with real money. The film improves with interesting sub-plots between Ben and Professor Rosa as well as Jill Taylor (Kate Bosworth as the love interest).

The card counters

Unfortunately the ending is quite predictable as you see the film develop which is a shame but the film still seemed intriguing to watch and I felt myself rooting for Campbell as he tries to pull off card counting in Vegas. I think that was the saving grace for the movie is that by the end I realised I cared.

2.5/4 decent but is sometimes too predictable