The Cooler (R) ★★★½

The Cooler revolves around a guy who makes a living being a very unlucky Las Vegas gambler. A little golden nugget of indie brilliance, the film itself hits the jackpot.

Story

Bernie Lootz (William H. Macy) is cursed. Everything he has ever touched in his life has turned bad, including a past gambling habit that has made Bernie reluctantly indebted to Shelly Kaplow (Alec Baldwin), an old-school wise guy who paid off Bernie's debts--but not before kneecapping him with a baseball bat. Shelly runs the Shangri-La Hotel and Casino, a throwback to '50s Vegas, when it was an adult playground full of gamblers and glitzy shows--not the family-oriented fantasyland it is now. Realizing Bernie's contagiously bad luck could be profitable for him, Shelly brings Bernie on as the casino's ''cooler''--so called because Bernie's able to stop a gambler's winning streak just by standing nearby. But after many years of being indentured to Shelly, Bernie's debt is nearly paid, and he's looking forward to moving on with his life. Shelly, on the other hand, doesn't want to lose one of his most valuable assets--especially since upper management wants to upgrade the Shangri-La with three floors of gambling and a roller coaster. Complicating matters even more, the shy Bernie becomes smitten with Natalie (Maria Bello), a hard-bitten cocktail waitress at the Shangri-La, who, after a few awkward dates, warms up to Bernie. Suddenly, with a genuine Lady Luck by his side, Bernie's cooling techniques run cold, and his once icy touch turns hot. Has Bernie's luck really changed? Is he really going to break away from his hellish existence and take the girl with him? Not if Shelly has anything to say about it.

Acting

In The Cooler, Macy gives his gutsiest, most lovable, most heartbreaking loser performance to date. Bernie is one sorry lump of flesh, but because Macy's portrayal is so nuanced, you never really feel sorry for Bernie. From the beginning, Bernie's good at what he does and commands respect on the casino floor. When he falls in love with Natalie, Macy suddenly become the thinking woman's sex symbol, radiating his peculiar sensibilities and goofy sex appeal, especially in the rather explicit but intensely comical and intimate love scenes. For her part, Bello (Auto Focus) does a wonderful job playing the wounded Natalie, another working girl with a chip on her shoulder whose whole demeanor is changed by love. Yet, the real tour de force performance is Baldwin's. He's finally let go of the idea that he has to play the leading man and has embraced his supporting role with fervor. His Shelly is a desperate, desperate man, the worst kind of control freak, but Baldwin plays the nostalgic casino manager with empathy and, dare we say, heart, even as he breaks people's knee caps and punches pregnant women in the stomach. Supporting player Paul Sorvino also gives a memorable performance as the Shangri-La's aging, drug-addicted lounge singer.

Direction

Co-writer and first-time director Wayne Kramer understands a thing or two about bad karma. ''I'm the kind of guy whose luggage always gets lost by the airline,'' he has admitted--and he evidently pours all his experience being unlucky into The Cooler. He and co-writer Frank Hannah came up with the concept of a Vegas casino floor ''cooler'' without any real proof the job exists, but whether it's fact or fiction, the film comes alive when Bernie's anti-Midas touch is at work cooling the dice so they'll crap out, jinxing the slot machines so they'll bust, or tapping the dealer so he'll get a blackjack. The pace of the film only hiccups in a few places, usually during moments between Bernie and Natalie, but overall it brilliantly displays Las Vegas' fading glamour--those ''daddio'' days when cocktails were cocktails and gamblers gambled. The Cooler could have just as easily been Shelly's story, as he tries to hold onto the old Vegas ways and maintain his casino's dignity before it turns into another splashy attraction.

Bottom Line

The Cooler, a film whose dice are loaded with a slew of great performances, is a nearly flawless character study of the unlucky who find love in a place called Vegas, baby.