By Geno McGahee
On January 5th, Film Movement will be releasing THE GAMBLER on DVD. It was Lithuania’s official submission for the 2014 Academy Awards, screened at the Marrakech, Tallinn Black Nights, and Santa Barbara film festivals; won a Special Jury Award at the 2013 Warsaw International Film Festival; and was awarded many of the Silver Crane Prizes (for Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Score, Best Individual Achievement, Best Art Direction) at the 2014 Lithuanian Film Awards. After watching the film, I can understand why it has earned so many honors. It is gritty and dark with a sharp edge.
Vincentas (Vytautas Kaniusonis) is an EMT with a gambling problem. His entire team has a tendency to gamble, but Vincentas has to contend with a debt to a violent goon that beats him with regularity. Everything is a bet to Vincentas and his co-workers, Bogdanas (Romuald Lavrynovic) and Kaziukas (Valerijus Jevsejevas). They continually put money down on various things leading to a new idea. Vincentas proposes gambling on the patients at the hospital. When they die, you win. He puts odds on the patients and takes the money and he begins to make a great deal of money as the man running the program.
A romance brews between Vincentas and his co-worker, Leva (Oona Mekas), but she is against his operation. Despite this game, Vincentas still feels like a good person and wants to have the relationship with Leva. The fast life and the thrills begin to take him over and he starts feeling like a big player, throwing money around, but when Leva’s son falls ill, the cash that he plants in her hand doesn’t get the reaction he had hoped for. She notices the corruption of his character and wants less and less to do with him.
When Leva gets too opposed to the gambling operation, with her son on death’s door, she gets set up and reported for theft and loses her job. She is now more desperate than ever and Vincentas is infuriated and takes down the operation, leading to another big showdown with the bookie he used to owe and a big surprise in the end.
THE GAMBLER is a great story with plenty of twists and turns. The journey that Vincentas takes through this film will have you rooting for him at moments and shaking your head in disgust at other times. He is a flawed hero that comes around a little bit too late in the end. Vytautas Kaniusonis does a tremendous job in this role. Oona Mekas also played her complex role incredibly well. She ran the gambit of emotions incredibly well and she had the ability to play the role in a way where she was weak at times and strong at times. It was very compelling.
I highly recommend THE GAMBLER. It was a great film.
Rating: 8/10
