In pop culture, before you had to "know when to walk away, know when to run," THE GAMBLER was synonymous with a Fyodor Dostoevsky novel and transcended into this 1970's film written by James Toback, directed by Karel Reisz and starring James Caan as university professor Axel Freed...
But Axel's real story isn't his job, but his vice, practically a religion: that of gutsy yet brainless gambling...
An addiction making him the user/loser of other people's money, including his own mother (more of a flirtatious step sister). But, while it's great seeing Caan facing the dark side of human nature, there's a lot to be desired when, for instance, he gets in over his head... and then some...
Shady characters come and go and sometimes return, ranging from Burt Young to Paul Sorvino, but their threats aren't all that... threatening. And while each performance is fitfully capable, it's as if the bookies, along with the audience, are passive observers to Axel's reckless and often ridiculous impulses.
Scenes with an extremely patient girlfriend/ingenue Lauren Hutton are overlong and distracting; her part feels tacked-on, mostly. And inside the classroom, as lecturer, Caan doesn't seem completely legit; he pulls off the roguish gambling addict better than a member of such a prestigious academia (plus he's an author), looking more like a tough guy football coach doubling as teacher...
Meanwhile, sporadic and strategic illegal backroom gambling sequences (filled with mafioso-looking inhabitants) lack the kind of severely desperate tension that these grungy locations aesthetically promise...
With so much to lose in each hand or roll of the dice or turn of the wheel, we should be biting our nails, and so should he... although a quick trip to Las Vegas does up the ante, injecting a needed dose of existential suspense into the otherwise languid visual prose.
Overall, Caan's steely reactions to the bottom continuously falling out are a standout... albeit kind of a shame since he often slips out of trouble faster than it takes to maintain an edgy pulse throughout; it's like watching a diver swim with toothless sharks...
And yet, if you're a fan of the infectiously likeable square-jawed actor (a perfectly equal hybrid of cult and mainstream cinema) this is definitely an intriguing two-hour melodrama that actually gets better with each viewing. What initially seems rather mundane becomes a voyeuristic character-study with subtle yet calculating finesse...
And given the ensemble-friendly era, there are a host of recognizable actors like one perturbed bookie, Jimmy, played by Carmine Caridi (who Francis Ford Coppola originally had in mind for what became Caan's game-changing role as Sonny Corleone in THE GODFATHER: then switched to a killer cameo in the sequel): He rules a memorable scene providing a deeper glimpse into Axel's addiction, and what might be the consequences...
Then there are future TV-fixtures Antonio Fargas, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, Stuart Margolin and Vic Tayback. M. Emmett Walsh also turns up and as a weenie banker is another James... Woods...
Specifically, when playing on cable, Time Warner Cable's top-of-the-screen index description states very simply: "James Caan in a study in self-destruction." And, well... that's pretty much that...
What sets out to be a proverbial X-ray of the soul winds up merely exposing bones. Then again, THE GAMBLER leaves most of the fleshing-out for an impartial and ambiguous audience. Which isn't so bad either.
