GENRE: Crime thriller
RUNNING TIME: 92 minutes
STARRING: Ben Affleck (Argo), Justin Timberlake (Friends with Benefits), Gemma Arteton (Quantum of Solace)
DIRECTED BY: Brad Furman (The Lincoln Lawyer)
RATING:
Currently screening at Ster-Kinekor Northgate.
PLOT: Richie Furst (Justin Timberlake) is a Princeton universtiy student struggling to fund his studies. For a small fee, he signs up fellow students to an online gambling site. When he is exposed by a disgruntled student, the Dean gives him an ultimatum. Instead of closing down the service and concentrating on his studies, Richie chooses to gamble all his tuition fees in order to free himself from his financial woes. His plan goes horribly wrong when he realizes that he has been swindled by the gambling site which was meant to set him free.
Richie jets off to Costa Rica to face the corrupt owner of the site, Ivan Block (Ben Affleck), and is lured into the dark world of online gambling.
THE GOOD: The film highlights an ever-growing problem in our society today; that of online gambling. It is a theme which is not exploited enough by film makers. It is not surprising that people are drawn into this alluring world and the promises of an extravagant lifestyle are hard to resist. But taking risks always comes at a cost, and that is the dark underbelly which is seldom revealed.
THE BAD: Ben Affleck’s face is not what comes to mind when I envisage a ruthless gambler who keeps man-eating crocodiles as pets. He may be superb in chick flicks, and that is where he should remain. Justin Timberlake does not look old enough to have his own bank account, never mind be a gambler boss’s sidekick.
VERDICT: The gambling world is like a deep dark secret. It entices people in and once caught, they spiral deeper and deeper into an abyss of corruption and greed. That rough and ruthless underbelly of being caught in this web was never evident in this film. I like the general theme of this movie, but the characters were all wrong and there was not enough suspense and evil deeds to label this as a thriller. With Timberlake and Affleck’s baby-faced looks, I sometimes felt like I was watching more of a family drama.
SPECIAL THANKS TO STER-KINEKOR NORTHGATE FOR MAKING THE REVIEW POSSIBLE.
