Though his name wouldn’t exactly be synonymous with world box-office domination, very few living actors are as universally revered as William H. Macy, whose undeniable brilliance has served to illuminate Boogie Nights, Happy Texas, Fargo and a voluminous list of other masterworks. (It’s likely that only John Turturro and Philip Seymour-Hoffman come close). A blood-splattered thriller set in a Vegas casino, The Cooler by no means qualifies as one of Macy’s better career choices, but in spite of its over-obvious debt to a billion neon-city movies of the past, it scores highly for effort if not originality.
Bernie Lootz (Macy) is the most chronically unlucky gambler ever to set foot in casinoland, a shuffling sorry-I-exist loser whose misfortunes are contagious to all around him, until (to his own complete bewilderment) he’s sexually targeted by waitress/hooker Bernie (Maria Bello), thus triggering a complete reversal in his fortunes generally. Sadly, this comes as unwelcome news to gangster scuzzball Shelly (Alec Baldwin), a raging sadist who’s highly compelling to behold, if perhaps a little too clearly modelled on Goodfellas’ Joe Pesci.
The Cooler’s pace never relents throughout, which keeps it lively enough to mitigate the bombardment of gangster-flick clichés that disfigure the proceedings. There’s certainly no earthly reason to see it twice, but for unfussy devotees of the genre, this might do the trick.