The Card Counter Review
The Card Counter (2021) Film Review, a movie directed by Paul Schrader and starring Oscar Isaac, Tiffany Haddish, Tye Sheridan, Willem Dafoe, Alexander Babara, Bobby C. King, Ekaterina Baker, Bryan Truong, Dylan Flashner, Adrienne Lau, Joel Michaely, Rachel Michiko Whitney, Joseph Singletary, Kirill Sheynerman, Britton Webb and Amye Gousset.
Paul Schrader’s new film The Card Counter showcases the remarkable talents of Oscar Isaac in a complex leading role. Isaac delivers a performance that is multi-layered and intriguing right from the moment he appears on screen. In support, Tiffany Haddish and Tye Sheridan are in fine form playing the roles of the characters that help drive the actions of the character Isaac plays. Schrader’s direction is flawless with his signature style on display throughout.
The movie introduces us to a poker player called William Tell (Isaac). He plays some hands at a casino and ends up with a decent $750 payday as the film’s plot begins. William has a past and Schrader is wise to slowly unveil those details to the audience as we get to know William and what makes him “tick.” William is a card counter and that’s how he ends up with big paydays as he travels to different casinos to gamble. Whenever he feels he is getting too much attention, he walks away with whatever money he has won.
Tiffany Haddish (cast against type) plays La Linda who teams up with William to get him financial backing from rich investors looking to make money. She plays a major role in William’s story but the catalyst to the plot is the character known as Cirk played by Tye Sheridan. When William walks into a seminar being given on current facial recognition technology, Cirk, who is also in the audience, gives William his phone number. There’s a very precise reason why. Read no further if you don’t want to learn some of the plot development which I believe is best to discover through actually seeing the film.
William was actually a military interrogator and had served several years in prison. That’s how he learned to play cards so well. The reason he went to prison was that he was a fall guy and he actually didn’t deserve the sentence he received. There were extreme procedures followed at Abu Ghraib after the events of 9/11. Prisoners were graphically tortured and the film doesn’t shy away from showing us these events in heavy, interestingly filmed sequences. Willem Dafoe in an effective, but relatively brief, performance plays a man who supervised these events. He is known as Major John Gordo and this character has a huge role in the film’s plot.
The basic premise of the film revolves around William’s unusual bond with Cirk as well as his intriguing relationship with La Linda. We’re never quite sure how these characters will all come together in the story line but Schrader interweaves all the different elements of the plot rather nicely. The three are on a mission which is different for each one of them. We’re never quite sure what William’s character is going through emotionally during much of the movie. We do know, however, that Cirk is a mess with financial debts and he also has an estranged relationship with his mother. William becomes a father figure to him of sorts before the plot gets very complex with some twists and turns that I certainly won’t reveal here.
Haddish, as La Linda, is absolutely intriguing here and follows up her comic roles in other less compelling pictures such as Here Today with a layered performance that makes us question what La Linda’s role is going to be in William’s life. There’s too much going on in her interaction with William for them to simply be business partners.
Oscar Isaac adds humanity and depth to William. I won’t say this character is overly sentimental but he has a heart and that makes the character more complex. He’s going through the motions in life whether he’s playing cards, gambling and making money, or just drinking at the bar but he has the need for companionship in his life as well. The circumstances behind his friendship with Cirk are complex in their excesses and the bond between these two characters is well portrayed on screen.
What makes The Card Counter a powerful movie is Oscar Isaac’s work. He’d be a shoo-in for an Oscar nomination for his performance in this film if not for the plot’s complexity which makes the film a very hard sell in terms of appealing to a mainstream audience. There’s so much detail here that it sometimes feels like a documentary and that could be a turn off for the average moviegoer. Nevertheless, Isaac excels in this part adding so much more depth to the role than many other actors would have been able to give to it.
Willem Dafoe is under-used and his character here is so important to the script’s development that we probably could have used a few more scenes with him to show us just how bad a character Major Gordo is. But, never mind, the film’s ending makes a whopping emotional impact on the viewer and it’s hard to shake the uncomfortable feeling the movie leaves with the viewer.
Nevertheless, Paul Schrader’s The Card Counter leaves viewers on a somewhat hopeful note at the end just like Schrader sort of did with his previous film, First Reformed, in 2017. I don’t know many people who found a lot of hope at the end of First Reformed but the movie’s ambiguous ending significantly divided audiences with some people seeing a happier ending than the one that I did. The Card Counter is a little less uncertain in terms of the way Schrader decides to end the picture. I think there’s a lot more optimism here and that’s because we care so much for the characters played by Isaac and Haddish. This film may be about card counting to an extent but there’s so much more going on here with these characters. There’s no denying Schrader has dealt the audience a winning hand this time out.
Rating: 8/10
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