21

This is the second film this week I've seen co-starring Kevin Spacey and Kate Bosworth. Come to think of it, they were also in Superman Returns. Fortunately, in 21, there is no hint at any kind of relationship between the two of them.

21 is a largely disposable film adaptation of what I've heard is a very good book, Bringing Down the House, which was about MIT students who card-counted there way to riches in Vegas. The film takes the bare bones of that idea and creates something wholly different, as if the premise were filtered through one of those "how to write a screenplay" books. The result is lackluster.

James Sturgess stars as a whiz kid who needs $300,000 to go to Harvard med. Apparently he's never heard of college loans, or has no interest in any other med school, because he's hinged his hopes on one particular scholarship. When he's approached by his math professor, Spacey, to join a blackjack team that regularly makes runs to Vegas casinos, he is initially reticent but finally joins (perhaps because he has a thing for one of the other members, Bosworth). Lots of predictable plot twists ensue, along with some trickery at the end.

Part of the problem with this film is that for all the smarts that are supposed to be on display here by Spacey and his students, they have some questionable strategy. Why would they keep returning to the same casino (a security guy played by Laurence Fishburne gets suspicious of them), and why Vegas? Why not Foxwoods, which is only a two-hour drive or so from Boston? Seems to me that would save overhead. And some of the signalling the team members use to tip each other to hot or cold tables seems pretty blatant, as if they were raising red flags. Any sentient pit boss would spot them in a second. Also, the days of casino security pummeling card-counters in the back room are long gone, if they ever existed at all. Cheaters, maybe, but card-counting is not considered cheating, and anyone suspected of doing it is simply asked to leave and put on a blacklist.

There was some controversy that Sturgess was tapped to play this role, considering the lead in the book was an Asian-American, and Sturgess is British. He seems to have watched a lot of Tobey Maguire films before doing this film, because he projects the same squeaky-voiced masculinity. Spacey is perfect for the role, because it allows him to channel all his innate superciliousness.

The director is Robert Luketic, who adds nothing of any sort of style to the production. It is interesting to see that they filmed in actual casinos which were in operation. According to the DVD extras, the gaming industry loves this kind of publicity, because it encourages players to try card-counting, which is very difficult (particularly now that some tables recirculate cards into the shoe, which negates the whole thing) and will only earn the casinos more money.