Curtis Hanson, the director that brought us solid films like “8 Mile” and “L.A. Confidential” can’t seem to hold it together in his latest attempt “Lucky You.” Here’s what you should do instead: watch “The Wedding Singer,” then flip to ESPN’s exciting coverage of professional poker. On second thought, just watch “The Wedding Singer.”
Eric Bana (“Hulk,” “Troy,” “Munich”) gives a decent performance as Huck Cheever, a Las Vegas native who makes what he calls a living as a poker player. He is so far gone with his gambling that he pawns practically everything he owns to keep himself in those big games that will get him in the clear. His house even becomes a metaphor for his life: completely empty.
It doesn’t help that Huck lives in his father’s shadow. L.C. Cheever (Robert Duvall, “Thank You for Smoking”) is one of the world’s best poker players and has two world titles.
Their relationship is the real crux of the story, which becomes symbolized by a wedding ring Huck thinks his dad stole from his mom before she died.
One night after playing at the tables, Huck meets Billie (Drew Barrymore, “Charlie’s Angels,” “50 First Dates”) who is visiting her sister who lives in Vegas. Despite her sister Suzanne’s (Debra Messing, TV’s “Will & Grace”) warning, she goes out with Huck.
The moment Billie enters the film is significant for two reasons. She makes it become a romantic film, and she makes it become a film with problems.
After seeing “Lucky You,” it makes a little more sense why the film was shelved for nine months before being released.
It seems as if there were studio executives’ hands at work here. In the just over two hours running time, Drew Barrymore’s character, the supposed love interest of the protagonist, can’t be in it for more than 15 to 20 minutes.
You could actually take Billie out of the film and still have a film. So, for any of you out there that were misled by the studio’s trailers for this film: It is not really a romantic comedy.
That’s unfortunate, too. Some of the moments between Bana and Barrymore are endearing. It is apparent, though, that the original story was probably just about a poker player and his father. The studio probably had no idea how to market it and who to market it to, so they added a love interest.
Great. But it never works with her in it for only an eighth of the movie.
Billie will be in a scene and leave for a phone call. Huck and L.C. have one of their many father-son moments dealing with poker.
Time goes by. Even more time goes by. Where’s Billie? Ten minutes later she comes back to the scene to bookend it.
Even a writer like Eric Roth, whose past credits include “Munich” and “Forrest Gump,” couldn’t seem to pull this one completely together with Hanson. Fortunately for the film’s sake, there are a lot of funny moments that alleviate the poker-playing dulls. Look for a couple of the cameos by Horatio Sanz and Robert Downey Jr., who steal their respective scenes and add the welcome humor you need to get through this film.
