Director: Mike Hodges
Starring: Clive Owen, Alex Kingston, Gina McKee, Kate Hardie, Nicholas Ball, Kate Fenwick, Simon Fisher-Turner, Nick Reding

- Reviewed by Tim

Addiction (n.) - To surrender (oneself) habitually or compulsively to something.

I have heard of different types of addiction over the course of my years (drugs, alcohol, sex, adrenaline, gambling, and nicotine), but the addiction to watching gamblers lose their money is a new one for me. I guess, if you think about it, there is a certain perverse feeling of pleasure when you see someone miss the "brass ring". Example: You're sitting at a card table in and the bloke next to you is on a wild winning streak when, for some unknown reason, he doubles his already large wager. As you sit there waiting for the outcome of the game, you think, in the back of your mind, that such arrogance should not be rewarded by yet another win, so you start to root against him. As this poor sod is ultimately parted from his substantial collection of chips, you say to yourself, "Serves you right, you greedy little bastard". Let's all admit, now, to the strange feeling of jealousy when someone wins a large wad of cash by playing the lottery or something of that nature. Come on, 'fess up!

Jack Manfred (Clive Owens) is a writer who, while searching for a topic to write about, returns to the world of dealing cards in a London casino. The job was arranged by Jack's father (Nicholas Ball), who is a high risk player himself. As Jack goes through the interview process, we get some insight into a casino's underbelly. There are many rules that apply to casino workers that restrict what they do and say with clients. (Don't talk to clients at the table. NEVER speak to them outside of the casino. Romantic involvement between casino workers is forbidden. Don't try to hide the knowledge of any misconduct, because we WILL know.) These rules start to play a role in story development and character building as Jack trips over most, if not all of them throughout the film.

Jack lives with his girlfriend, ex-cop turned store detective Marion (Gina McKee), whom he seems to only half-love but shows random affection for. On top of any tensions that Jack and Marion may have at home, the casino starts to affect their relationship further. Jack falls back into his addiction of dealing and all but stops writing his book until he notices another one of the dealers cheating a client. He now has a character to build upon for his book. The character has a philosophy of taking what he can get and screwing others out of what they have.

While we watch Jack become more and more detached from life, he has a quick turn with another dealer, Bella (Kate Hardie), and gets involved with one of the clients, Jani de Villiers (Alex Kingston), outside of the casino. Jack knows that these activities are forbidden, yet he continues to see Jani and ultimately agrees to assist in robbing the casino.

This is really good low-budget movie-making and it took over two years for it to get minimal distribution here in the States. The main character has a running narration throughout the film that oftentimes occurs between lines in a scene. The dark mood and almost grainy filming gives Croupier an edge that keeps you interested even though the pace is a bit slow.  I'm sure that the small independent theatres are happy to have this movie play, but the larger "chain" theatres would probably not have it.  Another "Art House" movie makes good on the independent film promise of substance.

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