Character study of a small-time gambler
Character-driven movies generally place plot secondary to an exploration of an individual. “The Card Counter” is such a film. There is a plot, but a sketchy one. The emphasis is on an enigmatic poker player, a loner who travels the gambling circuit, mostly through East Coast casinos. His back story is gradually revealed as he makes a living, careful never to win big enough to draw attention from management.<br /><br />William Tell (Oscar Isaac, “Dune”) informs us through opening narration that he was incarcerated, did better in prison than he thought, and taught himself to count cards. He uses this skill to support himself by playing poker, winning some cash at one casino and making his way to the next. We later learn that he was in a military prison for ten years because he participated in torturing prisoners at Abu Ghraib. At one of his casino stops, he’s approached by Cirk (Tye Sheridan, “Ready Player One”), a young man whose father was similarly punished for his actions but never achieved the fragile peace that Tell did. Cirk’s father killed himself. Now Cirk plans to torture and murder the officer, Maj. John Gordo (Willem Dafoe, “Spider-Man: No Way Home”), now a civilian military contractor, who taught and commanded his men to abuse and then got away with everything.<br /><br />Though brief, the flashback scenes at Abu Ghraib are intense. Deafening music, shouting, screaming, barking dogs, filth covering the floors and walls, prisoners being beaten, and naked prisoners writhing in pain constitute a very real hell in which misery is constant and unending.<br /><br />Tell takes Cirk under his wing to make up for all that the young man has lost. Cirk agrees to accompany Tell as they travel from casino to casino, all at Tell’s expense. About the same time, Tell accepts an offer from La Linda (Tiffany Haddish, “Bad Trip”), an agent for poker players, to put him on the poker world series circuit. He agrees to this primarily to provide for Cirk.<br /><br />Director Paul Schrader (“Taxi Driver”) focuses on a loner and outsider, an uneasy fit for traditional society. Tell has eccentric peculiarities, such as wrapping motel furniture and wall decorations in white sheets and securing them with cord to simplify his surroundings, turning the room into what looks like a cell. Suffering from insomnia, Tell writes in a journal late at night about his experiences.<br /><br />Isaac’s character is a man of habit, ever on the move, staying under the radar and trying never to leave a trace. The intrusion of Cirk and La Linda force him to emerge somewhat from his solitary existence. La Linda sees in him potential for a big win. Cirk sees in him a potential ally and Tell sees in Cirk a chance to put a troubled, obsessed young man with a badly formed revenge plan on a better track, and in La Linda the means to support him.<br /><br />Isaac is limited by the role in how he can convey emotion. A good poker player, after all, never shows what he’s feeling. But in Schrader’s frequent use of close-ups of Isaac, he reveals patience, observation, and thought. Like Travis Bickle in “Taxi Driver,” William Tell has time — lots of it. He has no interests outside of gambling, no family, no serious relationship, and no aspirations other than winning small, moving on, and doing it all over again.<br /><br />The film’s pace is fairly slow, with little action. The emphasis is on the dialogue. To keep things visually varied, Schrader moves the action around from casino floors to lounges, motel rooms, and crowded poker championship ballrooms. There are practically no exteriors, since Tell’s life is conducted mostly indoors. When we do glimpse the outside world through a window or door, it is a dramatic contrast to the dimly lit, often sleazy interiors.<br /><br />The structure of “The Card Counter” is kind of clunky. Tell’s interest in Cirk seems awkwardly sudden. We don’t really see the transition from the isolated Tell to the mentor Tell. Haddish’s role is unfortunately underwriten. La Linda is nothing more than the device to get Tell into the big-time poker circuit. The character has greater potential. Cirk, too, seems like a half-established character. He is tunnel-visioned, determined to kill Gordo, yet has no real plan. Cirk’s life hasn’t been the best, and he is sympathetic, but Sheridan is terribly stiff and fails to infuse Cirk with spark. His performance is one-note, with little nuance.<br /><br />A Digital code is included on a paper inside the packaging. The only bonus extra on the R-rated Blu-ray release from Universal is a brief featurette, “A High Stakes World.”<br /><br />“The Card Counter” is effective at showing the airless, window-less world of the casino as well as the poker tournaments with players squashed together unglamorously, but the film never fully succeeds in making us care about the characters. Tell’s life on the road is a prison of his own making, and director Schrader languorously takes us through this odd individual’s well-honed routine. Schrader’s script plays mostly on the same emotional level, and doesn’t alter until the very end, when it seems contrived. Though the director enjoys playing with form, he fails to give the movie real spark.
The movie title "The Card Counter - Blu-ray + Digital," available on Movies & TV, has received an average rating of 3.7 from 2865 reviewers. 
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 {"Genre": "poker movie, gambling movie, movie night, suspense movie, buy movie, DVD movie, Blu-ray movie, Focus Features movie, drama movie, Drama, digital movie, Martin Scorsese movie, revenge thriller movie, rent movie, card counting moviepoker movie, gambling movie, movie night, suspense movie, buy movie, DVD movie, Blu-ray movie, Focus Features movie, drama movie, Drama, digital movie, Martin Scorsese movie, revenge thriller movie, rent movie, card counting movie  See more", "Format": "Digital_copy, NTSC", "Contributor": "Tiffany Haddish, Willem Dafoe, Paul Schrader, Oscar Isaac, David Wulf, Braxton Pope, Lauren Mann, Tye SheridanTiffany Haddish, Willem Dafoe, Paul Schrader, Oscar Isaac, David Wulf, Braxton Pope, Lauren Mann, Tye Sheridan  See more", "Initial release date": "2021-12-14", "Language": "English", "MPAA rating": "R (Restricted)", "Package Dimensions": "9.96 x 6.73 x 0.51 inches; 2.4 Ounces", "Director": "Paul Schrader", "Media Format": "Digital_copy, NTSC", "Run time": "1 hour and 52 minutes", "Release date": "December 14, 2021", "Actors": "Oscar Isaac, Tiffany Haddish, Tye Sheridan, Willem Dafoe", "Producers": "Braxton Pope, Lauren Mann, David Wulf", "Studio": "Universal Pictures Home Entertainment", "Writers": "Paul Schrader", "Country of Origin": "USA", "Number of discs": "1"}

Here is a brief synopsis of the title : Executive produced by Martin Scorsese, Paul Schrader's (writer of Taxi Driver and Raging Bull) The Card Counter is told with Schrader's trademark cinematic intensity. An ex-military interrogator turned gambler is haunted by the ghosts of his past decisions. Redemption is the long game in this revenge thriller featuring riveting performances from stars Oscar Isaac, Tiffany Haddish, and Tye Sheridan..