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EVEN MONEY
Directed by: Mark Rydell.
Produced by: Bob Yari, Danny De Vito, David S. Greathouse & Rydell.
Written by: Robert Tannen.
Director of Photography: Robbie Greenberg.
Edited by: Hughes Winborne.
Music by: Dave Grusin.
Released by: Yari Film Group.
Country of Origin: USA. 108 min. Rated R.
With: Kim Basinger, Nick Cannon, Danny DeVito, Kelsey Grammar, Carla Gugino, Ray Liotta, Jay Mohr, Tim Roth, Grant Sullivan & Forest Whitaker.

Truth be told, it would be too easy to make comparisons to Crash, another dramatic message film set in Los Angeles with an all-star cast in interweaving storylines. That’s at least what I thought before stepping into the theater. After the screening, one fellow critic said to the other: “So, Crash, racism is bad, and Even Money, gambling is bad. I got it.” While it will vary with audience members, particularly for those who found Crash to be an exemplary representation of racism in America and may be attracted to this film’s world of gamblers and bookies, Even Money, unfortunately, shares many of the former film’s pervasive flaws. Writer Robert Tannen, grandson of magician Lou Tannen, makes so much room for equal-sided despair that contrivances creep in once too often.

Compared to Paul Haggis, who is arguably by turns exceptionally manipulative with human emotions and very far-reaching with plot devices, Tannen’s ambitions seem to spring out of sincere personal motivations. One feels he has been around bookies like Augie (Jay Mohr) and Murph (Grant Sullivan) and people with desperation written on their faces, like Clyde Snow (Forest Whitaker). Tannen examines the two sides to gambling, the enablers (Victor, played in an all-too-easy sinister/sarcastic manner by Tim Roth) and those who fall completely prey to laying down buck after buck for an end that can’t be met (Carolyn, tepid Kim Basinger’s compulsive liar-cum-compulsive gambler). He strikes some of the richest ground with down-on-his-luck ex-magician Walter (Danny De Vito). He, besides Whitaker’s character, is the only one worth feeling some sympathy, primarily because his performance has more dimension than the script.

Walter isn’t merely a pawn of the plot, but has levels of personality that bring out levity, masking feelings of hurt and failure that come back to haunt him. Contrasting his character with Carolyn is interesting because she, on the other hand, lacks anything aside from pathetic hope and a knack at deception. But her skill, used mostly on her husband, is a one-track slope. We’re not even sure if she is really a writer as she says she is, or how she could go through her family’s life savings without her husband noticing. (Tannen is all about ambiguity, even when it isn’t needed, until the film's last third.) However, there could be one excellent movie made out of the Clyde Snow plotline. He and his brother are at odds over hedging points in college basketball games. As usual, Whitaker, in spite of the limitations to his character, is impeccable as the unlucky brother of a basketball star played by Nick Cannon.

Tannen, under Mark Rydell’s unobtrusive and unremarkable direction, crams a lot of plot, cutting back and forth, making parallels to the dramatic moment of one character to another as fates go worse for everyone, leading to a climactic and predictable basketball game. As with Crash, Even Money has individual moments that are thought provoking and heartbreaking. Yet there’s a complacency to the film, as in a made-for-TV movie, to only go so far with its underlying logic. Jack Gattanella
May 18, 2007