Lucky You Movie Review

Movies about poker are not exactly few and far between on the big screen –for example, this week’s announcement that big-name actors Idris Elba and Jessica Chastain are set to star in Molly’s Game– but somehow one or two movies always seem to escape me.

So, in a bid to make sure I have seen everything possible related to poker in the film world, I sat myself down to catch the Hollywood version of the World Series set in the poker boom of the mid-noughties – Lucky You.

The all-star cast was exactly that – Hollywood legends mixed with cameos from almost every big-time poker player you could care to mention.

In the movie, Eric Bana takes the lead role of Huck Cheever – a handsome and talented young player who lets his emotions get the better of him at the table; the exact opposite of his persona away from the felt.

In typical Hollywood fashion, he has to somehow find the $10K entry for the Main Event, but every time he gets close (or has it handed to him on a plate), he catastrophically loses it by gambling too aggressively or otherwise lucking out as in his golfing bet.

No movie, it seems, is complete without a romantic angle, and here a cute, lisping, Drew Barrymore is more than a match for Bana’s Huck, falling head over heels for him only to find he has stolen from her.

Complicating the drama is Huck’s father – LC Cheever, a 2-time bracelet winner already– played by the excellent Robert Duvall. Huck and Duvall’s character have a love-hate relationship due to the death of Huck’s mother, which he lays squarely at the feet of his ‘love-cheat’ father.

In fact, a running theme throughout the movie is the gold ring his mother left behind, variously being hawked for buy-ins and generally gambled between father and son in a battle for psychological and familial supremacy.

In the way of such movies, it appeals across a wide spectrum of cinema-goers and movie buffs, but fans of the background story I suspect, get immersed in the world of poker detail; is everything poker-related believable? Who did they get to consult on it? Was that such-and-such in the background? I often found it hard to remember the actual story-line as I started analysing the hands being played!

One such hand, early on in the movie, sees Huck facing his father in a Bellagio cash game. See if you can work this one out before watching it…here are the basics.

The board:

2♥ 4♠ 7♦ 9♦

LC bets and Huck raises him all-in – including the pawn ticket for the mother’s ring against his father’s expensive watch! As they explain between them, they both know that Huck is sitting with trip 7’s or had turned a third 9, and LC has 4 to a flush and an open-ended straight draw.

For you, dear reader, what are the percentages behind the hand? No looking it up!

So, as expected, the diamond comes in on the river and once again Chuck’s Main Event dreams are put on hold.

Throughout the movie the poker playing is extremely believable –nothing really jumped out as being a ridiculous hand or played horribly – and the poker-hand analysis between father and son in the café scene is spot on. Not at all surprising when you find out that the consultant for the movie was none other than Doyle Brunson. Even the earlier scene where Bana teaches his new girlfriend, Billie (Drew Barrymore), how to play is well done and quite amusing.

Mixed in with the family drama and the burgeoning romance are the afore-mentioned cameo roles. I have to admit, I only spotted half of the players which the credits list! A game to play for you at home of course – write down who you spot as you go along and see if you can beat my measly total!

Bana’s Huck seems set for a complete blowout, especially when he prop-bets away the $10K buy-in which he had finally accepted from casino loanshark Roy (played by the always great Charles Martin Smith) and receives a scary warning and black eye for his trouble. But it has to be said, if he can’t run five miles in under 39 minutes he deserves a slap!

I won’t spoil the movie for those who haven’t yet seen it. There are other interesting moments, and although the ending isn’t completely unexpected, the penultimate twist is nicely taken care of by director Curtis Hanson and screenwriter Eric Roth.

It has to be said, however, that it completely bombed at the box office. Returns of $8million on a budget of $55million certainly wouldn’t please anyone in the movie or poker industry.

Overall, this movie gets a B from me. It’s obviously a cash-in on the poker boom, but it’s an amusing and enjoyable little movie all the same. It covers all the bases from a Hollywood angle and it also fits in more poker-related things than were probably necessary for the general public.