Three Cherries Out Of Four's A Small Winner In This Case: The Cooler

Cast overview, first billed only:
William H. Macy .... Bernie Lootz
Alec Baldwin .... Shelly Kaplow
Maria Bello .... Natalie Belisario
Shawn Hatosy .... Mikey
Ron Livingston .... Larry Sokolov
Paul Sorvino .... Buddy Stafford
Estella Warren .... Charlene
Arthur J. Nascarella .... Nicky 'Fingers' Bonnatto
Joey Fatone .... Johnny Cappella
M.C. Gainey .... Highway Officer
Ellen Greene .... Doris
Don Scribner .... Lou
Tony Longo .... Tony
Richard Israel .... Marty Goldfarb
Timothy Landfield .... The Player

While you think you may have seen William H. Macy like this -- a down-on-his-luck sad sack who can't quite catch a break -- you really haven't. Well the first half of The Cooler concentrates on the sad sack, the second half features a sexy sleeked out Macy who, as Bernie Lootz, gets to do what all of America has wanted to do to Alec Baldwin probably since he was born. I won't give it away though.

Bernie's a guy who's luck is so bad it rubs off on other people, a useless trait anywhere except for the gambling palaces of Vegas where Bernie works simply by walking around at the behest and command of Shelly Kaplow, an "old school" Mafioso (only old-schoolers would hire a cooler to jinx a table). And of course old school doesn't mean attaching your wages, it means baseball bats and broken bones.

But even that can't keep Bernie from leaving in a week. And he's gonna bail at a bad time: the owners of the casino are looking to do a top-down revamp and remodel. In desperation, Kaplow hires Natalie to string Bernie along pretending to be in love with him.

And you know how that goes. Baldwin is a relatively strong weak link. I never could quite get him as an old-school Mafioso the whole time (only about 4/5). His amoral streak's been tapped a lot before, and memorably -- he's underrated, but he just can't quite manage that balance of vulnerability needed at the end. While we've seen Macy like this before, the man does not have a sleepwalking-through-the-role bone in his body and once again he's created a character who manifests quiet oceans of strength beneath a plain and put-upon exterior. Dittos for Maria Bello whose dark acting choices are marking her as another Lana Turner or Barbra Stanwyck.

Relative new-comer Wayne Kramer smoothly executes the proceedings in a non-obtrusive manner appropriate for the setting and the cast. When a movie's set in Vegas, do you really need fancy-pants camera work? And when your cast plays such fascinating characters so well and they've got the seasoning and expertise it's best to go laid back which is very hard to do. When you have a scene as powerful as the aforementioned Macy/Baldwin encounter, and an effective subplot involving Bernie's (maybe) son and pregnant wife you stay back and make sure every other element that can screw it up (roughly more than can be counted) doesn't come into play.

A solid effort worth a matinee.