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People are voting emotionally.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The Cooler is the movie "Casino" with heart. Bernie Lootz, the main character in The Cooler, has such bad luck that he can make your great luck instantly go bad. All he has to do is touch a hot gaming table to make it go cold. Really cold. Lootz lives by himself at the cheap in every way Better Life motel where his cat runs away, his flowers always die, and he has to listen to the guy next door screwing a hooker. The poor guy can't even get cream for his coffee when he works.Bernie gets paid to spread his miserable luck to the gaming tables at the Shangra-LA Casino, an old school, downtown casino that is out of touch with the business plan, and profits, of the contemporary Disneyland, family vacation style of Las Vegas. Shangri-La is run by Shelly Kaplow, a ruthless, mob-linked manager whose utter lack of ethics has no bounds.Things change because Bernie is going to leave Las Vegas in a few days. Turns out Shelly and Bernie go back decades, all the way back to when Shelly broke one of Bernie's knees over a gambling debt. They have remained partners and as close to friends as either man can stand. Shelly hires Natalie, a cute cocktail waitress and once in a while hooker, to lure Bernie to continue to work at Shangri-La.The performances in this film are extraordinary. William H. Macy as Bernie offers as brilliant a performance as an actor can achieve in any role. I had never head of Maria Bello until I saw this film for the first time a few years ago. Her Natalie is stunning, absolutely stunning. It includes nuances few actresses can accomplish, plus she has that smile, that gorgeous, gorgeous smile. Alec Baldwin gives perhaps his best performance ever as the thoroughly amoral casino manager who has no qualms about breaking knees or serving fatal doses of heroin to his lounge singer. He deservedly achieved an Academy Award nomination as best supporting actor. Ron Livingston, who gained fame as Capt. Nixon in Band of Brothers, plays Harvard educated Larry Solokov, a whiz kid who is going to transform the Shangri-La into a Steven Wynn type casino.The Cooler is a special film, in part, because of the themes it successfully addresses, and the manner in which it addresses them; friendship, child abandonment, the true definition of luck, and what constitutes love. The lighting, cinematography, and music all contribute significantly to the film's essence. The screen literally lights up when Bernie and Natalie feel their connection.There is a scene in which Shelly catches Bernie's appalling son, Mikey, convincingly played by Shawn Hatosy, cheating at the craps table. Shelly violently maims Mikey the same way he permanently injured Bernie. It's as brutal a scene as it is effective. But there is also a very touching love scene is which Bernie and Natalie connect in every way lovers can.

Decent enough film about a man who's luck is so bad (William H. Macy) he's hired as a "cooler" for a casino, someone whose mere presence near a gaming table can put the kibosh on a winning streak.A bit of good luck drifts into his life in the guise of Maria Bello, who would be good luck for anyone, but a big slice of bad luck hounds him in the shape of Alec Baldwin, a gangster thug who would be bad luck for anyone. Things go from bad to worse in a mildly engaging but not very memorable movie.Baldwin received an Oscar nomination for his performance and Bello was considered a sure thing for a nomination, but she was strangely left off the shortlist when nominations that year were announced.Grade: B

As Golden Age perceptions uneasily change hands with New Money in today's Las Vegas, a casino owner with nostalgic leanings towards the city's heyday finds himself caught up short by the new corporate blood; worse, his favorite "cooler" (or, gambler's jinx) has fallen in love with a cocktail waitress, which has turned his luck around. Despite a snazzy design, some fine acting, and an apparent love for film noir, "The Cooler" doesn't seem to have anything new up its sleeve. The broads are still tough, the mobsters are still busting kneecaps in back alleys, and the sad sacks and wiseacres are still hanging around, hoping to get lucky. The ubiquitous Alec Baldwin does well with a complicated character (the casino boss with a soft spot who still has to play the heavy), but there's too much of him--and when Baldwin gets a head of steam going, rattling off at the mouth with fill-in-the-blank profanities, he's not showing us anything fresh or exciting. Ditto Paul Sorvino as the drug-addicted lounge lizard past his prime, or Ron Livingston as a smug Harvard stooge who wants to take over. William H. Macy has some terrific moments as the self-proclaimed loser who gets a new lease on life via working girl Maria Bello (a second generation Sharon Stone), but I'm not sure how convincing that finale is. The movie's point seems to be "Casinos don't appreciate it when a gambler wins", yet the bittersweet finish belies this, probably for the sake of the box-office. ** from ****

"The Cooler" is headed up by a very strong cast, led by two excellent actors - William H. Macy and Alec Baldwin - and with a strong supporting performance by Maria Bello. The story itself is a decent enough one, a little slow to develop at times, but interesting. Its greatest weakness is that if you're not a believer in luck - bad or good - then the whole thing comes across as somewhat implausible.Macy is cast as Bernie, a loser of a guy whose whole life screams bad luck. Some years ago Bernie got himself heavily in debt to Shelley (Baldwin), who runs a Vegas casino. Unable to pay off the debt, Bernie first gets his knee broken by Shelley, then finds himself hired by Shelley as a "cooler" - paying off his debt by using his bad luck to turn potential big winners into losers at the casino tables. Bernie has almost repaid his debt when his life becomes complicated by the unexpected appearance of Natalie (Bello), a waitress at the casino who ends up falling for Bernie. The feeling is mutual, and suddenly Bernie's bad luck turns good, and everyone he's around turns into a winner. This isn't good news for Shelley. Not only is his money not being repaid, but he's an old school casino manager who's under pressure from his own boss (who's brought in a younger guy to work with Shelley) to modernize his way of doing things. Shelley's growing desperation to hold onto his power, and its implications for Bernie and Natalie, becomes the focus of the movie.There's a few twists and turns scattered throughout this movie to keep it moving along, the look at the inside workings of a casino is interesting, and the performances by the three I've mentioned are quite good. I can't say this really blew me away, but it was pretty good. 6/10