Marky Mark is a million miles away; this is true. Mark Wahlberg did a lot of excellent stuff in the last ten years, including gaining two Academy Award nominations, one of those for The Departed, written by William Monahan, who’s now the screenwriter of The Gambler.
Based upon the original movie brilliantly written by James Toback, this remake confirms, if still necessary, Wahlberg’s incredible desire to be James Caan. And he’s right; everybody wants to be Sonny Corleone, who’s still a great actor with his terrific regret who made him great for Robert Altman. There’s still a long way to go for Mr Wahlberg, and Professor Jim Bennett is the proof.
Yes, Rupert Wyatt, who did well with the Apes, is not Karel Reisz, and even Monahan is not Toback, probably one of the most underestimated filmmakers’ of the last thirty years.
The Gambler is repetitive, predictable and manneristic.
Wahlberg’s character is uselessly exaggerated and ridiculously self-destructive. Still, there’s no empathy at all with this rich guy who decided to waste his life to emulate his father and hurt his cruel and selfish mother. The main problem is that Bennett is too intelligent to be a nihilist without a proper intellectual reason. And Lebowsky still teaches that being a nihilist is quite tiring.
The Gambler is not deep enough to be an existential tale and too slow to be a good thriller. It even has many significant screenwriting problems, just like London Bridge, the movie directed by Monahan. Two clues can be considered proof, and actually, Infernal Affairs was much better written than The Departed.
Wahlberg will win an Oscar, not for Transformers or ready-made movies like this one. And unfortunately, not even John Goodman, the best thing of The Gambler, will. Walter Sobchack has drawn a line in the sand.