‘Croupier’ Is Intense, Tough and All Aces

Intense, hypnotic, assured, “The Croupier” mesmerizes from its opening image of a roulette ball on the move. A taut journey inside the world of professional gambling, this enigmatic, beautifully made film crosses the traditions of film noir with a distinctly modern anomie with results as ice cold and potent as the vodka its protagonist keeps in his freezer.

It’s been nearly 20 years since “Croupier’s” director Mike Hodges made “Get Carter,” arguably the most influential of British gangster movies, described by one disapproving critic as “a bottle of neat gin swallowed before breakfast.” And it’s been almost 25 since writer Paul Mayersberg wrote the haunting, David Bowie-starring “The Man Who Fell to Earth.” Collaborating for the first time, Hodges and Mayersberg have fashioned an elegant jewel, hard and bright, where the austerity of Robert Bresson meets the laconic toughness of Raymond Chandler.

Our guide is Jack, a tyro writer with dyed blond hair compellingly played by Clive Owen. Jack’s detached habit of referring to himself in the third person in “Croupier’s” extensive voice-over gives him a distant, uninvolved air, but don’t confuse his coldness with complete amorality. For Jack’s lack of surface emotion masks passions he’s had to bury because in his world, no moment of humanity or warmth goes unpunished.

Jack is no more than half in love with Marion (“Notting Hill’s” Gina McKee), the London policewoman turned store detective he lives with. “You’re an enigma, you are,” she says fondly, to which Jack accurately responds, in the voice-over only the audience hears, “Not an enigma, a contradiction,” someone whose unspoken credo is “Hang on tightly, let go lightly.”

Jack is trying to be a writer, but the only editor he knows is not exactly encouraging: “Celebrity is what sells books,” the man tells him. “We can always find someone to do the writing.” So when Jack’s estranged, amoral father calls and says he’s lined up a job for his boy at London’s Golden Lion casino, he’s more receptive to the offer than he might have been.

For Jack, as it turns out, has had enough casino experience in South Africa to make him wary of returning to the pit. But the lure of regular income persuades him to take his hair back to its original, more sepulchral, jet black and accept a job as croupier, the person who rakes in the chips and pays the winners on games of chance from roulette to blackjack.

Though we never learn exactly why, Jack categorically refuses to gamble and has near-contempt for those who do. Still, when he enters the mirror-walled Golden Lion for the first time, his needling voice-over insists, “Welcome back, Jack, to the house of addiction.” Later, Jack elaborates in the usual third person: “A wave of elation came over him. He was hooked again, watching people lose.”

Photographed by Mark Garfath and edited by Les Healey, “Croupier” beautifully captures the tactile quality of the gaming world: the inviting spin of the roulette wheel, the click of the chips, the whoosh of cards turning over on felt. The film, smartly acted across the board, also allows audiences to feel how and why all this becomes addictive, to experience the rush inside that airless world rather than simply have it described.

Being a croupier demands the nerves and skill of a close-up magician, and though Jack likes to behave like a detached voyeur, much given to ironic comments, in fact the pressure is so unbearable he literally shakes for hours after his shift. Ever the writer, Jack quotes Hemingway from “A Farewell to Arms” about his own situation: “The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills.”

Despite his attachment to Marion, Jack is drawn to two very different women he meets through the casino. One, Bella (Kate Hardie), is a mousy fellow dealer he glances at and concludes, “She looks like trouble.” The other, Jani de Villiers (“ER’s” Alex Kingston), is a glamorous gambler who’s also spent time in South Africa. Mayersberg’s intricate, carefully structured plot involves them all as they try their best to survive in a “bent world” where no one can be trusted, yourself least of all.

* Unrated. Times guidelines: graphic scenes of sexuality, some beatings, very adult subject matter.

‘Croupier’

Clive Owen: Jack Manfred

Gina McKee: Marion Neil

Alex Kingston: Jani de Villiers

Alexander Morton: David Reynolds

Kate Hardie: Bella

*

Channel Four Films presents, in association with Filmstiftung NRW, WDR and La Sept Cinema and Arte, A Little Bird and Tatfilm production in association with Compagnie Des Phares & Balises. Released by the Shooting Gallery. Director Mike Hodges. Producer Jonathan Cavendish. Executive producer James Mitchell. Screenplay Paul Mayersberg. Cinematographer Mike Grafath. Editor Les Healey. Costumes Caroline Harris. Music Simon Fisher Turner. Production design Jon Bunker. Art director Ian Reade Hill. Set decorator Gillie Delap. Running time: 1 hour, 29 minutes.

In general release throughout Southern California.