The Cooler

* * * *

There have been many movies filmed in Vegas, and they normally use the capital of glitz as either a backdrop or as an unsullied handmaiden to the story. Few, that I can recall scrub away the rouge revealing the old-time, gangster-run, bar sow once called Tensile Town, as satisfactorily as “The Cooler.”

Bernie Lootz (William H. Macy) is a gifted man, and like some talented painter or dancer he strolls through the Shagri-La Casino spreading his own brand of lackluster joy. With a pat on the back here, a special look there, Bernie “The Cooler” Lootz puts the whammy on any would be winner. Shelly Kaplow (Alec Baldwin) as the Casino’s Director of Operations is the real recipient of Bernie’s talent and he has held Bernie for years as an indentured bad luck charm.

With only days to go until his marker with Shelly is paid in full, Lootz expects that things will continue on their downward trend, even when he’s free of his debt. This is exactly when the unexpected happens, he falls in love. Natalie (Maria Bello), a casino cocktail waitress, finds a charming side to Bernie, and like the other changes budding around them, this dynamic swiftly hustles the marvelous and the terrible into their lives. The spine of the story revolves around Bernie’s bad fortune, and it is used effectively as comic relief and cheerless centerpiece but it becomes even more comical when lady bad luck meets lady love.

Like Hilton’s Shangri La in Lost Horizon, the Shangri La Casino has remained untouched by the world around it. Replete with; hookers at the bar, red-velvet wallpaper, looming thugs and a show room where the headline act (Paul Sorvino) still sings Sinatra and Martin, the world seems to have passed this place by. This is a parallel universe to the new Vegas, the family vacation spot, shinny new hotels, corporate thugs and where you find the hearty meat of the film. Written and directed as his feature debut, Wayne Kramer tells us of the lost Las Vegas. A fresh view of an old story about the violence of change, this is a perfect setting for actor Baldwin to give a great performance as the old guard, fighting against the tide. The role played by veteran Sorvino, is short, but encapsulates the emotional theme of the story, and his death at the hands of Baldwin is just another analogy to the place and time.

There are reasons to find fault with this film. Opportunities are constructed out of thin air to move the story forward, like the introduction of Bernie’s long lost son, but these are paltry issues and don’t stop the forward progress of fine performances and solid premise. This is not the best movie of the year, but it’s the kind of movie that takes you back to a Vegas that has died. It’s the kind of movie that fills your heart and head and then compels you to venture back to the Shangri La a long time after you’ve left the theater.