Rounders

John Dahl has made only one good movie, in my opinion, and that was The Last Seduction. Linda Fiorentino was robbed of not only an Oscar nomination but of the Oscar itself, by technicality. The movie was shown on cable before its theatrical release. The Best Actress Oscar winner that year, for the curious: Jessica Lange for Blue Sky, which was filmed a good six years previously and shelved when the studio went under. Okay, there's today's movie lesson. Now back to Rounders. Forgive my digression.

John Dahl has made only one good movie, and has been trading on its success ever since. Red Rock West got some good reviews but I found it nearly unbearable, despite the presence of Nicolas Cage, Lara Flynn Boyle and the late, great JT Walsh. Then he scored with The Last Seduction, with Fiorentino playing the most definitive femme fatale the screen has seen in decades. His followup to Seduction, Unforgettable, was just that, despite having Fiorentino and Peter Gallagher. This time, he casts a couple It Boys and other members of the Miramax Mafia and tries to score with the young crowd with a movie about big time poker players. He shoots, he scores, but he only shot a layup, or a free throw at best.

Matt Damon is Mike McDermott, a law school student and demon poker player. Mike's slowly putting his life together after losing his tuition in one poker hand against local Ruskie mobster Teddy KGB (John Malkovich, doing the worst Russian accent you've ever heard). The problem is, his high school chum and former poker silent partner Worm (Edward Norton, rivaling Steve Buscemi in the Best Weasel category) is getting out of the joint, and needs some cash or he's going to lose body parts. Mike wants to stay away from cards and continue his nice home life with girlfriend Jo (porcelain doll Gretchen Mol, face like Jenny Garth, voice like Betty Boop), but he can't turn his back on Worm because Worm took a prison sentence that very easily could have been shared by Mike as well. So they start hitting poker games around New York and run into some locals like (Miramax Gunman) John Tuturro's professional poker player. Tuturro supports his family with his winnings, so he never goes for the glory, just the money. Mike and Worm, however, need The Big Score or they're toast.

The rest plays itself out rather predictably. They start making some cash, they get caught cheating ("Once, when I was five"). Mike faces Teddy KGB in a big showdown. The suspense is a bit disingenuous, because you know that Matt Damon (the Michael Corleone of the Miramax Mafia) will never come out the loser. What was interesting was watching the Frat Pack's two master thespians, Damon and Norton, square off. While Norton definitely gets into a role (like, say, Daniel Day Lewis), Damon is usually just playing himself. But he's so damn good at it. Norton is a good actor, and he's going to get better, but Damon is, like Tom Cruise and Tom Hanks before him, simply a natural. They are what make this movie watchable. God knows Mol didn't step up to the plate, and Malkovich seems to be playing a different sport entirely.