'Lucky You' - Curtis Hanson (2007)

For Huck Cheever (Eric Bana), playing poker is not just his living, but also his life. His father L.C (Robert Duvall) has twice taken the title of World Poker Champion, yet following in his father?s footsteps is just one of the factors contributing to Huck and L.C?s troubled relationship. A chance meeting with beautiful Billie Offer (Drew Barrymore) finally causes Huck to question his values and the lifestyle he?s used to in Las Vegas. All this and more takes place in the run up to the 2003 World Poker Championships.

In this, the second Vegas-set Hollywood release this spring, director Curtis Hanson shows two sides of the city. On one hand it?s a shiny, glitzy tourist destination, but also a working town where the community have to make a living somehow.

Hanson has assembled a great and recognisable supporting cast for Lucky You; Debra Messing makes the most of her small role as Billie?s steely older sister Suzanne, subtly breaking away from her unavoidable Will & Grace character by adding layers that the leads have trouble matching. Duvall rules the screen as his character rules the poker table; with a smarmy assuredness and a confident glint in his eye.

An unexpected appearance from the brilliant Robert Downey Jr turns into a film-stealing cameo as he plays a charlatan phone psychologist preying on the vulnerable. Unfortunately, adding Downey Jr into the film for this short scene leaves you hoping he would come back to liven up the slow journey to a predictable conclusion.

The leads, Bana and Barrymore, have a subtle chemistry between them, which could have been enhanced had they not had to contend with a torrent of poker-related puns, not to mention the sappy dialogue towards the film?s close. Barrymore?s part is woefully underwritten, which means that the usually adorable Drew does flounder a little until her character gets angry with Huck in an emotional and (finally) believable outburst.

Bana is the rock of the film; there?s hardly a scene he isn?t in, and he?s believable and occasionally charming as the brooding professional gambler Huck. In his scenes with Duvall the two create a convincing familial tension and this is the element that the film should have concentrated on. As a father-son poker drama this movie could have worked well, instead Hanson has concentrated on a relationship that he never really gets the audience to invest in.

Lucky You is a glossy rom-com that?s saved from clich?-ridden banality by some genuinely funny moments and a fabulous and diverse supporting cast. Unfortunately the fluffiness of the script does not make the most of the depth carefully added to the depiction of Vegas. It?s a shame Hanson invested so much in making the poker scenes look great while shying away from adding the substance that could have elevated the movie to something an audience could engage with.