Card Sharks

A "rounder" is defined in Webster's Dictionary as "a dissolute or rakish person." World champion poker player Johnny Chan has been quoted as defining a "rounder" more simply, using only one word: hustler. The characters in producer Ted Demme's ("Beautiful Girls," "The Ref") new high-stakes drama "Rounders" may not have been dissolute or rakish, but hustlers they were indeed.

The film opens with a very simple statement, a voice-over narration from Mike McDermott, played by Matt Damon, which captures the essence of "Rounders":

"If you sit down at a card table and can't spot the sucker at the table within the first half-hour, it only means one thing - the sucker is you."

With this, the tale of "Rounders" begins.

Starring Damon, Edward Norton and John Malkovich, "Rounders" explores the underground world of high-stakes poker in New York City. It deals with the trials and tribulations of one particular rounder, McDermott, a master card player who, after losing everything he had, decides to trade his poker-playing ways for a shot at a gambling-free life. The new straight-and-narrow approach includes law school and girlfriend Jo, played by Gretchen Mol.

Everything is working out just as planned for Mike, both in school and at home. Jo is happy as long as Mike isn't at a card table, and he figures the law school route is a legitimate road to success, but find it's a bit short on excitement, compared to the thrills of a back-room poker game. Mike is able to resist temptation, flirting with it on more than one occasion, until a longtime friend named Worm, played by Norton ("Primal Fear," "The People vs. Larry Flynt"), is released from prison and immediately tries to suck Mike back into the underground gambling scene.

It doesn't take long for Worm to continue right where he left off before prison, aggressively pissing off the wrong people, including Teddy KGB (Malkovich), a seedy Russian card shark who runs the biggest and consequently the most dangerous game in town. Before Mike knows it, he is faced with the dilemma of dealing himself back into the world of the "rounders" for the sake of his friend, or leaving the forever-unappreciative Worm out to dry.

Don't expect another typical Matt Damon "young, rebellious genius" role; instead, Damon gives an incredibly solid on-screen performance, straying a bit from his normal "holier than thou" persona. Also commendable is the performance given by Norton, who as his character name, Worm, suggests, squirms his way in and out (and usually back in again) with such a convincing weasel-like demeanor, that you want to reach through the screen and smack him around yourself.

Add Malkovich, who plays the best psychopath in the business, to the mix and what you have is a movie that is incredibly well-done, all the way from the opening narration to the closing credits.

The proverbial ace-in-the-hole for "Rounders" seems to be director John Dahl, whose directing skills and lighting techniques perfectly capture the grimness of the secret poker underworld. Along with some outstanding pinpoint cinematography that allow no card to be left unseen by the audience, the technical aspects of "Rounders" are as sharp as its characters.

"Rounders" has become the trump card, in the otherwise weak hand, of movies that have been dealt to us so far this fall.