‘21’ newest film to take gamble on casino genre

American cinema fans love a good casino story. Hoping for the good box office returns of movies like the “Ocean’s” trilogy and “Casino Royale,” Aussie director Robert Luketic and Columbia Pictures assembled a well-known cast for “21,” a film based on the true stories of the Massachusetts Institution of Technology blackjack team. Though well-suited as a platform for discussions on greed and excess, the film only busts in entertainment value.

Jim Sturgess from “Across the Universe” plays Ben Campbell, a broke college student at MIT, scrambling to come up with cash to pay for his post-graduate degree. When a free ride from Harvard looks bleak, Ben reluctantly enters into the card-counting world of professor Micky Rosa (Kevin Spacey). Micky has assembled a team of good-looking geniuses from MIT and makes an offer Ben cannot refuse — the chance to make money by playing blackjack.

Using Micky’s system of counting cards, Ben and the MIT blackjack team live double-lives, studying for degrees during the week and breaking the Vegas bank on the weekends. As time progresses, Ben’s dreams become reality when he gets together with fellow teammate Jill Taylor (Kate Bosworth), a sexy mistress of disguise. But with one emotional bet at the blackjack table, Ben loses everything and his whole world spirals out of control.

In “21,” Ben’s dual life becomes the focus, and the cinematographers take great care to contrast his card-counting days in Vegas against his studying days at MIT. The Boston winter illustrates Ben’s life before gambling — static, cold and dull. When the scenes cut to the pageantry of Sin City, the neon lights, strip clubs, and shady dealings perfectly portray how secretive and materialistic he has become. Complementing Sturgess’ convincing acting, the cinematography doubles down and takes the movie house by surprise.

But the ending and the message of the film put a sizeable tarnish on “21.” Ben fails to grow at all from his experience; he instead shows us how smart he is, and how he can use his intelligence to solve his problems. Additionally, the ending blurs the lines between “good guy” and “bad guy.” It is left up to the audience to decide who to like and who to hate.

The movie puts on full display the fleeting pleasures of life in excess and illustrates how such a life is just like placing your bets at a card table.