Lucky You

Lest be duped by the trailers that make it seem a romantic comedy set in the world of high-stakes gambling, one should approach "Lucky You" as more of a movie about poker with a generous amount of father-son conflict thrown in for good measure. The romantic angle is just an arbitrarily (in fact, awkwardly) placed distraction that sticks out like a sore thumb (hint: Drew Barrymore's character is good for only around 20-30 minutes of this 2-hour movie).

Huck Cheever (Eric Bana) is a regular high-stakes poker player in Las Vegas whose skills in reading body languages of his opponents is hampered by his rashness. Constantly in the shadow of his estranged father L.C. (Robert Duvall), a two-time World Series of Poker champion who never fails to rub in his son's weakness, Huck falls for Billie (Barrymore) - a Vegas newbie who's just got a job singing in a bar. Problem is, Billie's cynicism-free personality clashes with Huck's callous opportunistic character.

And it goes without saying that as cards are dealt and the stakes are raised, there will be some fixings to occur among Huck and the two people around him.

Strangely, after being in projects with involving narratives, director Curtis Hanson and co-writer Eric Roth fail to draw any meaningful yarn with the characters. In fact, "Lucky You" works better when it sets its focus on the poker table, and not trying to deal with any of tepid characterizations. But such ambivalence ultimately leads to a hollow feeling.

For those who enjoy watching poker, it might be a worthy deal (at least the final act). But for anyone else, considering the people involved in this project, it leaves the feeling of an empty hand.

Only the most die-hard poker fans will find much to cheer about in "Lucky You," a Freudian drama set in the high-stakes world of the Vegas strip.

Eric Bana ("Munich") and Robert Duvall star as Huck and L.C. Cheever, two world-class poker players with many unresolved father/son issues between them. Huck resents the fact that he's had to live virtually all his adult life in the shadow of his famous father who, with his constant carousing, stealing and gambling, made life a living hell for Huck's mother virtually till the day she died. What Huck doesn't realize - and this is where Doctor Freud comes in - is that he is pretty much following in his father's footsteps both in his choice of profession and his relations with women. Meanwhile, L.C. hangs out around the casinos and coffee shops of the city trying to reconcile with his boy, while at the same time, doling out unasked-for advice about how the young man should be living his life both at and away from the poker table. Drew Barrymore completes the cast as Billie Offer, a young, morally upright ingénue from Bakersfield who has come to Sin City to begin her career as a singer and who winds up falling under the spell of the ethically-challenged Huck. Or could it be that the beatific Billie is really an angel of the Lord come to lead the iniquitous Huck out of this modern-day Sodom and Gomorrah?

The scenes between Bana and Barrymore are probably the best in the film and one wishes that more time would have been spent developing that relationship instead of sitting around the poker table. For whenever the story moves into the casino, the movie stops dead in its tracks, proving once again that poker, by its very nature, makes for one of the least compelling sports ever to be depicted on film. Anyone without a thorough working knowledge of the ins and outs of Texas Hold'em, in particular, is going to find himself lost in all the arcane trivia of the poker-playing scenes (which take up quite a large chunk of the movie's overall running time, I might add). Even worse is the fact that the father/son angle is so clichéd and hackneyed at this point that even actors of the caliber of Bana and Duvall (and they are both excellent) can't be expected to really pull it off.

There are some quality elements in "Lucky You." Director Curtis Hanson, who co-wrote the screenplay with Eric Roth, proves yet again - as he did in "LA Confidential" and "8 Mile" - that he knows how to extract the essence of a locale to build atmosphere and mood. Moreover, the interactions between Huck and Billie are often flavorful and intriguing (which is more than can be said for those between Huck and his dad). The performances are uniformly impressive, with Barrymore, in particular, showing a bit more range here than she has in most of her previous roles.

Hanson has populated his film with a number of real life poker playing celebrities, which may be of interest to the aficionados but won't mean much to the rest of us. Sad to say, but the lackluster "Lucky You" is unlikely to appeal to anyone not already passionate about professional poker - and unlikely to garner the sport itself many new fans.

Drew Barrymore is an actress whose talent has not yet been fully tapped. Eric Bana is good but, as usual, Ms. Barrymore is wonderful. She proves once again that she has developed into a wonderful actress. Robert Duvall is also good. What was not so good was the story itself. The father-son conflict is contrived and ultimately fails dramatically. Also, Eric Bana's character is an insipid loser and not particularly nice, so there is nothing about him to inspire empathy. He takes money, squanders it, disrespects his father, steals from his girlfriend, acts irresponsibly and does stupid things. But if you want to learn a few things about poker players, then this is the movie to watch. Actually, the real story is the poker game itself. Some of the players at the table seemed to be much more interesting than Mr. Bana's character and if the movie dealt (no pun intended) more with them, then maybe this movie would have been more entertaining. Nevertheless, having Drew Barrymore in this movie makes it still worth watching.

As far as playing or watching poker on television, I can take it or leave it, and I enjoyed this movie.... so I can imagine poker fans will really LOVE this film. It gives justice to their "sport" with realistic hands, playing, situations and attitudes.

Often, I thought something hokey was going to happen, something predictable but rarely did that occur in this film. You really never knew what was going to happen and suspense builds for a number of gambling scenes. I hesitate to say more for fear of spoiling anything. Suffice to say, the gambling scenes in here were very realistic. I know what from the behind-the- scenes bonus features in which a number of real-life professional players commented on that fact.

The film follows a father-and-son team (Eric Bana and Robert Duvall playing "Huck" and "L.C. Cheever") with a small romance sub-plot involving Drew Barrymore. It isn't just all about poker, although that's most of it - culminating in the World Series of Poker - but about the mentality of people who make gambling their life.

This film was far better than I figured it would be, and was rewarding in the end without being predictable. It was fairly low-key, too, in the profanity and sex department, but kids would be bored with this film, anyway.

This movie will mainly attract card players, I'm afraid, and that's too bad because it offers a lot more than that. The movie got better as it went along and wound up a good two hours of entertainment.

The very sympathetic character of Huck Cheever displays some of the worst compulsive gambler behavior. It's appropriate to the movie and is certainly exhibited by many people who gamble a lot. In fact, it might be the most realistic part of the movie. Unfortunately, the only thing that keeps spouses sane is not knowing

I'm a very frequent poker player and sports bettor, and I enjoyed the movie. But the less intimately acquainted my wife is with the pitfalls of gambling the better she'll sleep. Besides, all the Drew Barrymore scenes really seemed flat to me so it may not even be a very good date movie.