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Twenty-One

Real surprises aren’t the stock and trade for movies like 21. I should have come to the theater expecting formula instead originality. If you keep that expectation in mind, or if you’re exactly like most movie goers (which the filmmakers are counting on) you’ll be stunned by the twist at the end.
The card counting is simplified for the math challenged. They do this mostly by not bothering to explain how to card count in detail. The audience only needs to know that the characters are winning, or that they’ve stayed at a table too long, after their compatriots have signaled them to get out.
I was left with all sorts of questions as I saw numerous holes in their strategy--simple things that a non-MIT grad with a barely discernable grasp of mathematics could figure out. One of their hand signals was so blatant and unnatural that I didn’t understand why they didn’t change it, particularly after the first time they were detected. The disguises on the girls were so transparent that even a drunken bat could’ve recognized them, without the aid of any fancy facial recognition software. I began questioning the intelligence of the people counting the cards long before I questioned the intelligence of the people who made the movie—which I guess says something about the acting. The actors were convincing enough that I didn’t jump to the filmmakers in the first go around.
Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess) is about to graduate from MIT as a pre-med student. He’s been accepted into Harvard’s medical program, but he doesn’t have the money to cover his tuition. Campbell has pinned all of his hopes on a full scholarship, which he realizes is terribly unlikely during a preliminary interview.
It is at just this precipitous moment that one of his teachers notices his brilliance in mathematics. Micky Rosa (Kevin Spacey) decides to recruit Campbell to scam the blackjack tables in Las Vegas.
Spacey brings just the right amount of cunning, intelligence and menace to his role. He starts out as a father figure and confidant, albeit a twisted one, who soon begins threatening the young Campbell when the student at first refuses to join in on the card-counting fun.
Spacey and his nemesis, an old school Vegas thug played masterfully by Laurence Fishburne, carry the movie as the two most complex and interesting characters. The other actors play their roles, but without Spacey and Fishburne as touchstones, the movie wouldn’t work quite as well as it does.
Sturgess’ gorgeous love interest and fellow card counter, played by Kate Bosworth, looked less cadaverous than she’s looked in the past, though I could still see a rib cage, just below her sternum.
A neatly circular ending, good acting and the glamour of Vegas make this an entertaining flick. My problem was that I expected a film about intelligent people to actually BE intelligent. Shows what I know about Hollywood. I really should have done what the rest of the theater did—shut off my brain and enjoy the ride.