HOLLYWOOD has always had something of a conflicted fascination with Las Vegas. On the one hand there is a definite sense of superiority — both moral and cultural — that Los Angeles feels over the gaudy, hollow showmanship of its near neighbour. But then Los Angeles is a city that made its name dealing in artifice, so there’s also a grudging sense of admiration for the pure entertainment, adulterated by neither taste nor art, of the Strip.
It’s not surprising, then, that in its long and fertile history of taking Vegas as inspiration, Hollywood has established more than a few cinematic clichés, many of which turn up in The Cooler. What’s more unexpected is that, thanks to a fortunate combination of first-rate acting and atmospheric cinematography, the clichés seem fresher than they have for years.
William H. Macy takes the central role of Bernie Lootz, wearing his habitual hangdog expression like a cheap, crumpled suit that’s been slept in a few too many times. Bernie is a gambler so far down on his luck that he’s paying off his debt to the Shangri-La casino by working the floor as a “cooler”. By just brushing sleeves, or materialising at a gaming table like a ghost at a party, Bernie can turn a winning streak into a string of losses that stretches to infinity and back. This talent makes him the most valuable asset of the casino owner Shelly Kaplow (Alec Baldwin).
When Bernie meets Natalie (Maria Bello), a new cocktail waitress at the casino, he doesn’t dare to hope that she might be interested in him. Guys with his kind of luck can’t even find a parking space, let alone a few moments of intimacy with a beautiful blonde. But the pair hit it off in a night of passion that shakes the very foundations of Bernie’s down-at-heel motel. It’s an earthy, joyful sex scene that is lent honesty by Macy’s hamster-coloured toupee and Bello’s lovely, natural, surgery-free beauty.
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With his luck finally changing in the bedroom, Bernie notices an unexpected side effect — he is no longer an effective “cooler”. In fact, as Kaplow begins to realise, his former failsafe bad-luck charm is becoming a liability.
Kaplow has other problems. His love affair with old-school Vegas is turning sour. The last thing he needs is for sad-sack Bernie to find happiness, ruining the casino in the process.
The Cooler sets out to show us the realities of life for the people who end up living in America’s most unreal environment: the desert-dwellers who never see the sun or the shadows on the 24-hour gaming floors that smell of money, disappointment and stale, nervous sweat. The clichés, in other words, of a Las Vegas movie. However, ultimately the film’s real charm lies in it being an offbeat love story that is as much about magic as it is about realism.
15, 101 mins