Lucky You | DVD Review

Curtis Hanson’s Lucky You is a tiring and unfocused mess of a film. No wonder Warner held back its release date three times (originally set to be released September 8th 2006 and finally flopping in and out of theatres May 4th 2007–against the release of Spiderman 3).

The story and characters are trite and boring–Eric Bana plays Huck Cheever, a full-time poker player who can’t seem to hold down his money or a girl, and who is presently trying to accumulate ten grand to enter a the ultimate high stakes poker game. He harbours a grudge against his father (Robert Duvall), also an ace player, who seems to have cheated Huck and his deceased mother out of happiness. Slopped on top of this well-worn Oedipal tale is perhaps one of the most pointless ‘love stories’ ever brought to celluloid. Drew Barrymore plays Billie, a naive aspiring lounge singer full of witless, facile sentimental phrases which the writer (Eric Roth) decided would be a notch cuter if she bungled them. She enters Huck’s world and tries to instil this cardboard rebel with a quaint sense of morality. Father and son both play stubborn and engage in verbal battle as well as a bout of card matches, eventually going against one another in the final round. Robert Duvall does his charming, wise and witty routine–nothing wrong with that per se, it’s just a waste to see him squandered on this heap of cliche and formula. That’s just the case with the entire film–Bana is usually a solid actor in solid well-rounded and interesting roles, Barrymore is not without her charm and looks and Roth and Hanson are both considered heavyweights in Hollywood, with good reason–Roth has penned The Insider, Ali, and Munich, successively, and Hanson helmed L.A Confidential, Wonder Boys, and Eight Mile–all good films. This one is due to be buried and forgotten about–better to rent the 1998 film, Rounders (John Dahl),–also about poker and much more captivating.

The film at least looks and sounds O.K. It is presented in wide-screen format and in Dolby Digital 5.1the soundtrack, as far as the music goes, is quite good, featuring Bruce Springsteen and an original by Bob Dylan, made for the film–another waste of talent.

The Extras, include the featurettes, The Reel Deal – The Time and Place of Lucky You and The Players at the Table are somewhat redeeming in regards to the disc, as they are at times interesting, commenting on the rise of poker as a televised ‘sport’ and internet gambling. The inclusion of this advent in the film is a decent foresight, though about three to five years too late. Also we learn that many, if not most, of the poker players in the film are real life professionals, some of them legends, and watching Duvall and company interact with these gambling heavyweights is amusing.

Rather than waste time on this one; flip on ESPN and catch a game. Better yet, set up a poker game yourself–it’ll prove to be more rewarding and enjoyable. You may loose your money–at least won’t feel robbed of your time.

Movie rating – 2

Disc Rating – 2.5