Wednesday, August 5, 2015

The Gambler

Mark Wahlberg is an english professor who finds himself largely dissatisfied with life. He published a first novel but has no self identity as a writer. Instead, he is in a constant internal existential battle over purpose, not just for his life, but all life. Put this overwrought philosophical intellectualism into the psyche of a gambler and you get what turns out to be a pretty depressing film. I suppose if this were an arthouse film designed to take you along into the exploration and depression... but even with that scenario it is not good enough to pull you in. Wahlberg is an entitled SOB who feigns a self destructive nihilism as a coping mechanism for having gambled his way into life threatening debt. I found myself caring for the film about as much as Wahlberg cared for himself.
2 stars (out of 5)

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