Mark Whalberg’s new film The Gambler is one exceedingly odd film. It’s about a college professor having an existential crisis who is deep in debt to two different loansharks. He manages not to get whacked because he genuinely doesn’t seem to care if he lives or dies (I got the feeling the loansharks were kind of baffled by this guy so kept giving him chances). He never makes smart bets, he tells his students that if you aren’t innately genius at something, there’s plenty of electricians who make good money, and he condescends to the criminals and hired goons who can’t figure out if they should just put a bullet in his head or not. It’s a tough character to read and to actually like but it’s kind of fascinatingly watchable.

It’s a flick about tough guys who talk tough and then give long philosophical intellectual speeches. I’m on the fence as to whether or not this is actually a smart film or just a pile of pseudo-intellectual nonsense. What I can say, regardless of whether or not it all makes sense, is that the movie was trying. It wasn’t interested in being a dumb film… I’m just not convinced the screenwriter knew what he was doing.

But I was never bored… I was oddly fascinated throughout… fascinated and baffled. I can’t say if I recommend the movie or not… it’s certainly not the gambling gangster movie the trailers promised so if you are looking for that, you aren’t really going to get it.

Score: 82