Desertman84 William H.Macy stars as a loser in a traditional casino world run by mobsters in this romantic drama by writer/director Wayne Kramer entitled The Cooler.Maria Bello and Alec Baldwin co-star in this romantic drama that tells a story of a "cooler" who owes thousands to the casino he is working for.Bernie Lootz has been extremely unlucky as a gambler.He owes a lot of money to Shangri-La casino more than $100,000.He gets hired as a "cooler",a person assigned to gamble next to high rollers and offer them some bad luck.This works off for awhile until Bernie has almost paid off his debt. Then he meets cocktail waitress Natalie Belisario.Bernie and Natalie falls in love and the former's luck starts to change as he becomes extremely lucky to the consternation of his boss,Shelly Kaplow.As these things are going on, Larry Sokolov arrives to the scene to make some management changes on how the casino business is run with corporations coming into the picture.No question that the screenplay could be considered trite and clichéd.But what makes it good is the fact that the actors and actresses are given room to work for in the portrayal of the characters that the viewers are treated with good entertainment.Macy,Bello and Baldwin provided great performances as we get to notice their characters more than the familiar screenplay.Added to that,we are also given a glimpse of how the casino business was run when mobsters were at rule as compared to the changes made by the corporations.Overall,it was a good movie due to the great portrayal of the main characters despite the familiar theme.

Andrew Ray Director Wayne Kramer's took on quite a venture when he made his 2003 effort, "The Cooler." Why? Because it was released just eight years after Martin Scorsese's "Casino" – the greatest film ever made about mob corruption in the Las Vegas casino industry. In fact, some critics dismissed "The Cooler" as too predictable and felt it overly mined some of the same territory as "Casino." I disagree. In a comparatively weak year for Hollywood, "The Cooler" was my favorite picture of 2003. Rather than "Casino," I prefer to equate "The Cooler" with David Lynch's 1986 masterpiece, "Blue Velvet," in that a dark underworld brews beneath the surface of an otherwise innocuous setting.A cooler is apparently a term casinos used to describe someone so inherently unlucky that his mere presence at a table game would cause other gamblers to lose money. A Casino boss would send his cooler to a table where a guest was on a winning streak. The cooler would theoretically end the hot streak, thereby preventing the casino from losing a large chunk of money to one gambler. Did casinos really utilize coolers? I don't know. It seems a little far-fetched, but Kramer shows us how it works in the opening scenes. William H. Macy is at his meek, downtrodden, everyman best as Bernie Lootz, a former gambling addict now working as a cooler for casino boss Shelly Kaplow, brilliantly played by Alec Baldwin. If you recall his five minutes of hot-tempered verbal abuse from David Mamet's 1993 film, "Glengarry Glen Ross," Baldwin has basically taken that character, toned it down a shade, and set him in a Vegas gambling house. Baldwin's Kaplow operates the casino with an iron fist, and nobody tells him what to do – save for his mob connection, Nicky Fingers. (And if that isn't the greatest mafia name in cinema history, I don't know what is.) Enter Larry Sokolov, played by Ron Livingston – a recent Ivy League grad sent by the new owners to bring the casino into the 21st century. Sokolov's ideas run counter to everything Shelly Kaplow stands for – in essence, the recent effort to make Las Vegas more of a family-friendly vacation destination, complete with the beautification and ornamentation despised by the "old guard." Conflict also arises when Bernie Lootz' son and his wife show up at the casino, only to mock its stodgy vapidity. Shelly's world is crumbling around him, and he's bound and determined to make everyone else pay the price. The result is a taut, vivid yarn depicting the sometimes shockingly violent unraveling of the mid-century Las Vegas casino industry as seen through the eyes of the Alec Baldwin character. Baldwin received his only Oscar nomination for this role, and it is indeed the best work of his long, successful career. Coincidentally, Tim Robbins won Best Supporting Actor that year for his role in Clint Eastwood's "Mystic River." Robbins is always solid, and that picture was a surefire winner, but as the years have passed, I remember Baldwin's performance as though I've just seen it for the first time; I can't say the same for Robbins.William H. Macy gives one of the three best performances of his long career as well – the other two being 1996's "Fargo" and 1999's "Magnolia." And Maria Bello scores too as Bernie's love interest. The cast is strong, the screenplay (by Wayne Kramer and Frank Hannah) is a real gem, as it laments the passing of a bygone time and place, while simultaneously bidding it good riddance. Unfortunately, Kramer's work since then (including "Running Scared" and "Crossing Over") hasn't lived up to the vast potential of "The Cooler." "The Cooler" was lost in the shuffle of Christmas releases in 2003, and it never gained the audience it deserved. It's worth seeking out "The Cooler," for the performances, as much as the script and James Whitaker cinematography – which lay bare the violent, uneasy marriage of the mob and the Vegas casino industry of the past. It's a winner, and it's this month's Buried Treasure.

daddyofduke The Cooler is the movie "Casino" with heart. Bernie Lootz, the main character in The Cooler, has such bad luck that he can make your great luck instantly go bad. All he has to do is touch a hot gaming table to make it go cold. Really cold. Lootz lives by himself at the cheap in every way Better Life motel where his cat runs away, his flowers always die, and he has to listen to the guy next door screwing a hooker. The poor guy can't even get cream for his coffee when he works.Bernie gets paid to spread his miserable luck to the gaming tables at the Shangra-LA Casino, an old school, downtown casino that is out of touch with the business plan, and profits, of the contemporary Disneyland, family vacation style of Las Vegas. Shangri-La is run by Shelly Kaplow, a ruthless, mob-linked manager whose utter lack of ethics has no bounds.Things change because Bernie is going to leave Las Vegas in a few days. Turns out Shelly and Bernie go back decades, all the way back to when Shelly broke one of Bernie's knees over a gambling debt. They have remained partners and as close to friends as either man can stand. Shelly hires Natalie, a cute cocktail waitress and once in a while hooker, to lure Bernie to continue to work at Shangri-La.The performances in this film are extraordinary. William H. Macy as Bernie offers as brilliant a performance as an actor can achieve in any role. I had never head of Maria Bello until I saw this film for the first time a few years ago. Her Natalie is stunning, absolutely stunning. It includes nuances few actresses can accomplish, plus she has that smile, that gorgeous, gorgeous smile. Alec Baldwin gives perhaps his best performance ever as the thoroughly amoral casino manager who has no qualms about breaking knees or serving fatal doses of heroin to his lounge singer. He deservedly achieved an Academy Award nomination as best supporting actor. Ron Livingston, who gained fame as Capt. Nixon in Band of Brothers, plays Harvard educated Larry Solokov, a whiz kid who is going to transform the Shangri-La into a Steven Wynn type casino.The Cooler is a special film, in part, because of the themes it successfully addresses, and the manner in which it addresses them; friendship, child abandonment, the true definition of luck, and what constitutes love. The lighting, cinematography, and music all contribute significantly to the film's essence. The screen literally lights up when Bernie and Natalie feel their connection.There is a scene in which Shelly catches Bernie's appalling son, Mikey, convincingly played by Shawn Hatosy, cheating at the craps table. Shelly violently maims Mikey the same way he permanently injured Bernie. It's as brutal a scene as it is effective. But there is also a very touching love scene is which Bernie and Natalie connect in every way lovers can.

tieman64 Wayne Kramer's "The Cooler" stars William H. Macy as Bernie, a perpetually down on his luck sad-face who lives in a rundown Las Vegas motel and works for Casino boss Shelly Kaplow, played by a scenery chewing Alec Baldwin. Bernie's job? He's a cooler, a poor schmuck whose luck is so bad he causes people at gambling tables to immediately lose their own luck. In other words, Bernie literally "cools" tables down, promptly killing hot winning streaks.The film's first half plays like a 1940's film noir, complete with likable losers, barflys, lonely waitresses, small time crooks, con-men and flea-bitten gamblers desperate to "get out of town". The film's second half, however, makes a rather odd shift, and begins to believe wholeheartedly in Bernie's metaphysical powers. From here on the film becomes a seedy fairy tale, Bernie's "luck" aligned to his libido, his sex drive, his wounded masculinity, which begins to repair itself when he falls in love with Natalie Belisario (Maria Bellow), a cocktail waitress. As Bernie's ego is rebuilt, casino boss Shelly Kaplow's is eroded, dice rolls, fate and lady luck conspiring to rob Kaplow of his phallus even as they pump Bernie's full of blood. Kramer then makes the film's casinos and hotels as much a character as Kaplow and Bernie; the shape and fate of this Vegas architecture seems to change as they do. The film closes with documentary footage of casinos being demolished, the buildings neutered as Bernie leaves town.A character-driven picture, the film is somewhat refreshing in cinema's current climate. Kramer lets his actors carry the show, shoots unconventionally "genuine" and "warm" sex scenes, knows how to use and play with convention, and keeps the interplay between his cast members fresh. His characters may all be raging archetypes – the limping loser, the down on her luck showgirl, the mob boss, the fading star – but they're well sketched. Macy in particular is very likable, with his sad eyes and forlorn face; a live action version of Tex Avery's Droopy Dog. He's made a career out of playing losers, but here we get to see him smile. To win the loot, the girl and live happily ever after. The film embraces its fairy tale aspects. It's a Disney movie for the Scorsese crowd."The Cooler's" cinematographer was James Whitaker, who treats us to a palette of dark reds, neon lights and muted shadows. Bernie's associated with vomit inducing greens and nauseating colours, until his luck changes, his clothes tighten and his spine straightens. The film's jazzy, mournful score recalls classic noirs; Miles Davis on a rainy day, or Bogart after a case of STDs. Many will find "The Cooler's" metaphysics annoying, but gambling, and Vegas itself, is a metaphysical game; the gambling man tinkers with chance and pretence. He is bold and timid at the same time, hoping to inform the unformed future. But the film doesn't necessarily imply that Bernie literally "influences the future", be this a negative or positive influence, only that everyone believes that he does. Gambling itself is largely influenced by blind faith, and near superstitious belief.8.5/10 – Worth one viewing.