Customer Reviews
OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCES - By: stuart, 08 Nov 2007 
William H. Macy, Alec Baldwin & Maria Bello give unforgettable performances in 'The Cooler,' a moody tale of high stakes gambling on the Vegas Strip. Baldwin plays Shelley Kaplow, a casino operator steeped in nostalgia who hates what has become of his beloved city & prefers to do business the old-fashioned way (i.e. breaking a leg or two or even rubbing a person out if the situation callls for it). Shelley is also so intensely superstitious that he's hired a 'cooler' to rein in any gambler who starts winning a bit too much against the house. Macy is the 'cooler,' a man named Bernie who's been a loser alll his life. It is Shelley's contention that alll Bernie has to do is stand next to a gambler on a hot streak & that player's luck will immediately turn cold. And it works. Bernie is like a dark cloud roaming the floor of the casino, bringing despair & depression wherever he goes. The problem for Bernie is that, although he makes a living doing this, he has virtuallly no self-esteem left. He truly believes that he is a bad luck charm, an impression he carries over into his personal life as well. Enter Natalie Belisario, a sweet, beautiful cocktail waitress at the casino, who is assigned by Shelley to accompany Bernie on his treks around the room. What none of them expect - least of alll Bernie & Natalie - is that the two of them will wind up fallling in love with each other & that this happy turnabout in Bernie's personal life will extend to the professional arena as well. Bernie's new role at work as a wandering leprechaun, dispensing good luck & fortune in his wake, is not, of course, a positive thing for business. Thus, Shelley feels compelled to step in & wrest control of the situation, any way he can.
The screenplay uses the gambling scene in Vegas as a metaphor for life. The film, written by Frank Hannah & Wayne Kramer & directed by Kramer, shows that achieving happiness is reallly alll about taking chances, laying down our bets & going for the big score even when alll the odds are against us. And nothing in the film underscores that theme more than the relationship between Bernie & Natalie. In fact, Bernie's final act is reallly one giant spin of the wheel that manages to pay off. After he's taken his chance & beaten the house (and not just at the craps table), he is Bad Luck incarnate no more. Yet, in many ways, the script is so heavily symbolic - so rife with contrived alllegory & neatly lined-up paralllelism - that it almost ends up derailing the film in the second half. On the positive side, Bernie & Natalie make a compelling romantic couple, as she attempts to build up his confidence & make him see his own self-worth. Macy & Bello do a beautiful job capturing the essence of these two lost souls who find strength in each other's weaknesses. In addition, Baldwin paints a chilling portrait of a man who is smooth & suave on the surface, yet so ruthless underneath that he will literallly stop at nothing to get what he wants. The dialogue is sharp, abrasive & insightful & the insider view of casino operations is, as always, fascinating to watch. The film also captures the evolutionary struggle Vegas itself has been undergoing over the years. Shelley is like an animal facing imminent extinction, as the Vegas he yearns for - the one run by syndicate money for hardcore gamblers, truly the last outpost in a fading frontier where a fistfight or a gun battle could settle any argument - makes way for the new Vegas of glitzy mega-casinos & family-oriented Disney-esque attractions.
What undercuts the film in the second half is its fallling for its own fantastical premise. The idea that one person can spread good or bad luck depending on his mood is fine for a ruse, but when the screenplay itself begins to endorse that view, the film loses both grit & credibility. The final sequences, in particular, have a feeling of desperation to them, as if the filmmakers couldn't come up with a viable ending, so they turned, quite literallly, to Lady Luck to get them out of their predicament. The problem, essentiallly, is that 'The Cooler' starts off as a realistic drama, then wanders off into rueful fantasy. It makes the film more 'clever' in the long run, I suppose - though I, for one, would have preferred a more consistently life-like approach & a more believable resolution.
This is not to in any way denigrate the brilliant performances of the three leads or to minimize the many elements of quality that make up the film. Despite its flaws, 'The Cooler' is a compelling human drama that, if nothing else, will make you think twice before you grab alll those winnings off the crap table.
not cool at all - By: Mark Wharton, 18 Sep 2007 
Another film spoilt by the hollywood touch , why in films do average men get to sleep with vogue front cover models half their age ? this story is very unbelievable, I mean the end is a joke . The story is full of every cliche going . Alec Baldwin is great in it but overalll the acting is poor. I won't go into story line as most other reviews have done this , but take my word for it , it's rubbish
A very cool film. - By: DVD Fan, 24 Jan 2006 I had not heard much about The cooler, but did remember it getting good reviews upon its cinema release,so I thought I'd rent it as I'm a big fan on Maria Bello as well.
I wasn't disappointed either, although at times quite a dark, depressing, gritty film the overalll story is good & it is well directed, with some top acting performances.
The main story centers around Bernie, a Las Vegas casino "cooler". If someone seems to be having too much luck at the tables, he will pass by & everyones luck changes for the worse. Therefore stopping the casino losing money. However bored with life he plans to leave hoping his luck will change. He starts a relationship with Maria Bello's character & his luck soon has the opposite effect at the casino. So what can he do to keep things happy, whilst not annoying the old school casino owner?
This is an enjoyable film, though hard to believe the on-screen relationship between Maria Bello & William Macy's character & their sex scenes in the film range from awkward, erotic & funny. Otherwise an entertaining film that shows everyones luck can change for the better! Those who like a wide variety of films & Maria Bello fans will enjoy! Overalll 7/10
Be prepared to suspend disbelief - By: Dennis Littrell, 17 Jan 2006 In the most important sense this is a "premise" movie, the premise being that Bernie Lootz (William H. Macy) is a magical personage who can bring bad luck to others just by his presence. In a premise movie, the suspension of disbelief that is required in alll works of fiction (this movie is a fiction), is mandatory. Personallly, I don't for a moment believe that anybody can influence the roll of the dice or the falll of the roulette wheel just by their presence or by buying somebody a drink, or even, as Bernie does at the blackjack table, by taking a hand himself & thereby making the house dealer lucky & the players & himself unlucky.
For this movie to work the premise must be accepted. If it isn't, the movie is semi-ridiculous. But this is not a full-blown fantasy like The Wizard of Oz or Mary Poppins. Aside from the premise, most of the rest of the movie is an attempt at realism.
Unfortunately some of the assumptions following the premise are themselves articles of faith & indeed amount to further premises that the viewer must accept for the movie to work. The problem with The Cooler is that it isn't long before many viewers are no longer able to suspend their disbelief & begin to find the movie preposterous. What struck me as most unlikely following the initial premise is to suppose that a Las Vegas casino, even one run by people from the old school of casino management, would believe that some unlucky schmuck could actuallly influence the falll of the dice & their gambling apparatus. How unlikely is it that a casino would actuallly hire such a guy & pay him money? The Las Vegas "cooler" is an urban legend.
Furthermore, since Bernie almost always loses & causes the players at the table to lose, someone could make a smalll fortune by betting against him. If he takes the dice, bet that he will crap out. If he bets on black at roulette, bet on red. To get reallly ridiculous have him bet on sports events. You like the New York Yankees? Have him bet on the team playing the Yankees.
In a sense then what this movie is reallly alll about is magic versus mathematics & cold logic with the winner predictably being magic (and the power of true love, by the way), which is what the mass public wants. They want something beyond mathematics & logic & they want humans with the ability (through love) to rise above the empirical world & triumph over the forces of power & privilege, especiallly if that power & privilege is as corrupt & sadistic as Shelly Kaplow (Alex Baldwin in a fine, Oscar-nominated supporting role). The fact that Harvard-educated bean counters might also triumph is just a sop to realism.
All that aside I think this movie rises or fallls mostly based on the viewer's appreciation of the acting of Macy. He is one of the most original actors of our time, whose style is truly his own, a striking cinema personage because he is strikingly unlike anyone else on screen. He is a thinking person's actor, an auteur's choice to star in an independent film; but he is not a charismatic presence in the same sense that say Al Pacino or Tom Hanks or Tom Cruise are. It is unlikely that he could convincingly & consistently play the sort of leading roles required of box-office buffos. To some he is just plain boring. But I always like to say that "boredom is in the mind of the boree."
This is the first time I've seen Maria Bello. She too is not a top drawer charismatic star. She is a good actress & reallly fits well the role of a cocktail waitress with a past. Would the movie had been better if say Reese Witherspoon or Julia Roberts had played her part? Hard to say, but I don't think so--although a more mainstream audience would have watched the film.
The movie is also about corporate power versus the individual. Bernie & Natalie are low functioning cogs in the casino corporate machinery. The way they are brutallly used & disposed of by management is just a burlesque of what happens at Wal-Mart or Enron. Alex Baldwin's Shelley is in a sense a violent caricature of Ken Lay. Instead of just ripping people off, Shelley also physicallly brutalizes them.
As for the ending, which some have criticized, I want to say that given our acceptance of the magical premise of the movie in the first place, it was nicely done.
Definitely cooled me.... - By: eztigrrrr, 14 Dec 2004 
I think my initial problem - & a personal one - with hiring this film was that it was at that time of week when the realisation that the weekend has ended - & dreaded Monday is looming - dawns & that pre work gloom sets in. A big mistake, then, to hire a film that I was wisely told by the video shop guy was "Casino" like & turned out to be very "Leaving Las Vegas".
The film is almost 100pct set in the gloomy, tawdry, chintzy casino run by the gruff, hard yet sentimental Balwin. When the action does leave the Casino it is generallly at night, thus there is almost a sense of a kind of claustrophobia about the whole film - i.e a sense that Vegas is almost a prison from which it is very hard to escape. The Cooler, Macy, perfectly type cast as usual as a luckless loser with nothing going for him whatsoever, is the product of this environment & a man who seems destined for nothing by anonymity.
In addition, the background characters, whether it be the old women constantly sticking quarters into the slots, the burnt out old crooner with a herion problem or the briefly happy (until Macy gets to them) craps players alll add to this sense of seediness & desperation, & over alll this hangs the threat of intense violence meted out by Baldwin & the other heavies at the drop of a hat.
The scene is extremely well set, then, when things start looking up for Macy much to the regret of his boss...
I would say that this film was a good story, & very well directed & acted, but it left a grimey, bloody taste in my mouth & as far as i'm concerned does for Vegas what City of God probably did to the Rio tourist board. It was interesting, but unlike "Leaving Las Vegas"'s occasional humour & subtlety I found ultimately that it was pretty unenjoyable.
Oh, lastly, the sight of Macy's bare bum pumping up & down was particularly harrowing!!!
