Powerful

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

This is not a review, only a question. Why the money used in the film is blue ? Is the story supposed to be taking place in Canada ? Well, it's obvious that it's not taking place in Canada.

I have seen a wide variety of good and bad, dark and happy films. A lot of the films are trying to impress a large crowd to reap in the rewards, however its rare to come across a film which is so intricately based on certain members of our society.Jim Bennett's character may be hard for a lot of people to watch it, which is the reason for the bad write up; however I have never connected or understood a character in a film like I did with Jim Bennett's. I am also sure this is the same reason why a lot of others love this film. Without being too crude, I felt a huge weight off his shoulders when he payed the loan sharks back, and to have a connection like this in a film excited and astonishes me. I also think Mark Wahlberg was the perfect man for this role, and he brought so much more to the film that I wasn't expecting. The film is called The Gambler, its based around gambling but yet it couldn't have anything any less about gambling, it focuses on the stress you bring on your self, the inner hatred and self pity, it also focuses on the strength of romance and inspiration, the two go hand in hand, and what Jim did was go from one extreme to the other. I also really liked the fact that his shirt gets brighter as the he gets closer to what he wants, even though he may not realise he is slowly achieving it.

Mark Wahlberg stars as Jim Bennett, a university professor and novelist with an addiction to gambling. Wahlberg is uncharismatic and unconvincing in a tiresome role in which he has to harangue his students on the subject of true genius. He isn't much of the problem, though since he is the central character, his character was awful in many sense and made it worse to root for him to win. On his personal time, he loses a fortune at blackjack, and finally stakes everything on a plan to persuade one of his students to throw a high-stakes college basketball game. The film contained more crude language than needed, and in a film as this it was taken too serious for certain enjoyment. It was more dark in a sense than expected. Had they made the film more light hearted, perhaps it would have been better. Altogether the Gambler did poorly at the box office (mainly due to a bad release date- Christmas 2014), and since then, it appears this film has become quite forgotten.

The Gambler is terrible - just a mess. I like Mark Wahlberg, but again he seems miscast as Jim Bennett, disgruntled and disillusioned English Lit teacher who is addicted to gambling. Wahlberg struggles to portray this poor little rich kid who's had everything, yet values none of it. The only positive is that Bennett knows he's a jerk, and secretly is hoping that someone will take him out of his misery. Wahlberg is much better in comedy, and roles where his natural down to earthiness fit the role much better.He has a disgruntled relationship with his English Lit class, demeaning the kids who have scholarships and are just in class because it's required. Bennett tries to act cool, but it just comes off as stupid. Then at night, he goes into his gambling world and strives to gamble until he loses everything.Jessica Lange plays his mother - she's the only reason I give this a 3 instead of a 1. She's terrific as his angry rich Mom who enables her spoiled brat son, but finally comes to her senses. Also, John Goodman is pretty good as this loan shark Frank who is brutally honest about what the consequences are of not paying back money borrowed from him.Finally, Bennett has a relationship of sorts with his student played by Brie Larson. She also works in the gambling house he attends, so she knows all the off-school stuff he does. But instead of digging more deeply into the whys of gambling addiction via expanding their time together, the movie goes completely off the tracks with stupid scenes and just bad scripting. In the end, there's a Rocky-like epiphany, but I just wanted to scream because there was no build up, no reason, no good anything about why what happens would decide to happen at that point. I just threw my hands up in the air and said, boy this is stupid.Bad casting, so-so acting, crummy screenplay, bad story. Avoid The Gambler. You want to see a good gambler movie, re-watch The Sting. But don't bet your time on The Gambler. It's a loser.