3.5 stars (out of five). Rating: PG-13, for violence, profanity and brief sensuality
By Derrick Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 3.27.08
Buy DVD: 21
• Buy Blu-Ray: 21 (+ BD Live) [Blu-ray]
This film is as slick, dazzling and superficial as its Las Vegas setting.
Although ostensibly based on the events reported in Ben Mezrich's fascinating book, Bringing Down the House
, credulous viewers should be advised that the film's press notes more accurately acknowledge that 21 is inspired by a true story.  |
| When Ben (Jim Sturgess, far left) accepts an invitation for some extracurricular activities organized by math professor Micky Rosa (Kevin Spacey, far right), he's astonished to find a blackjack training session already occupied by Vegas veterans: from left, Fisher (Jacob Pitts), Kianna (Liza Lapira) and Jill (Kate Bosworth). The goal? Take the casinos for a bundle, thanks to a clever card-counting scheme. |
Which would explain why Peter Steinfeld and Allan Loeb's script eventually devolves into a Hollywood fairy tale, complete with a ludicrous tag scene that certainly gets the intended laugh, even if it couldn't possibly exist in the real world.
(I suspect Steinfeld and Loeb greatly admire 1983's Risky Business
, since I detect an echo of Tom Cruise's concluding speech in their protagonist's final words.) All of which is a shame, because the first act of director Robert Luketic's captivating little drama feels very real-world. Star Jim Sturgess is spot-on as Ben Campbell, a shy, geeky and quite brilliant MIT student whose acceptance to Harvard Medical School — absolutely his, on the basis of academic merit — is in danger of being derailed because he lacks the money to attend. Sturgess is completely persuasive as an honorable individual with his eye on the prize, who simply cannot understand why years of hard work haven't been enough.
Scenes with his mother (Helen Carey) are heartfelt and sweet; companionable exchanges with his two similarly nerdy best friends (Josh Gad and Sam Golzari) are appropriately outcast-ish. The three bookworms — they've been designing a robotic vehicle for the past year, in anticipation of an annual contest — look yearningly at the cooler guys and hot chicks when enjoying a beer or two at the local watering hole, which is as close to being part of the "in crowd" as they're likely to get.
Then Ben catches the attention of charismatic math professor Micky Rosa (Kevin Spacey), who recruits the young man to join his rather unorthodox team of similarly gifted numbers crunchers. Micky and his crew have been taking trips to Vegas for an unspecified amount of time — vague and sloppy details often plague this script — and winning big bucks while playing blackjack with a card-counting scheme.
They're currently short one member, and Micky offers the empty slot to Ben.
