The Cooler

The Cooler is a 2003 movie directed and co written by Wayne Kramer. The movie was very well received by critics though it did not make a great run at the movie houses.

The movie centers around The Shangri-La Casino and it's Boss Shelly Koplov played by Alec Baldwin. Baldwin is terrific in this role putting every bit of narcissistic nastiness in his soul into the role. William H Macy plays Bernie Lootz a man employed by Shelley as a " Cooler ", that is a person who joins the table of a gambler on a hot streak. Bernie is a born loser with bad luck, a black cloud on good fortune.

Macy too is fantastic in his role. As we join Bernie he is in his last week of employment. A cocktail waitress played by Mario Bello begins to talk to him and soon they are having a meal together, laughing together and sleeping together. Bernie's loneliness is palpable and his feelings of disbelief at a woman being near him again show through.

Shelley has a lot on his plate. His bosses, the underworld figures who own the casino are being given advice by a fresh MBA played by Ron Livingstone. Shelley is completely against the family friendly idea of Vegas.

As Bernie's love life improves his talents as a cooler desert him. This brings no happiness to Shelly or his bosses and how Shelly deals with the changes in Bernie's life are a turning point in the movie.

The movie has graphic language, a little more sex than movies I usually watch, but the talent in the cast and the crispness and ability to shock in the script make up for it.

This movie is an undiscovered gem. It is a fantastic movie. For those wondering how Alec Baldwin keeps landing on his feet this movie might well be the answer. He can, in the right role, be a terrific actor. The cast also includes Paul Sorvino as a drug addicted old school lounge singer that Shelly wants to keep but who the bosses as part of their modernization of the casino want to replace.

This is a fantastic movie.