Croupier

Updated June 26, 2020 | Infoplease Staff

New York indie house The Shooting Gallery was responsible for making Croupier more widely available, and it's a good thing they did: the film is a good, twisty noir that has been completed for three years. Jack Manfred (Clive Owen) occupies the movie's shifting center. He's a wannabe novelist who reluctantly turns to card-dealing at an exclusive London casino. Under the cool card-sharkish exterior, Jack is himself an addict not to gambling, but to watching people lose. Under the auspices of gaining experience for his novel, he begins to slip into the casino's underworld. Life with live-in girlfriend Marion (Gina McKee) deteriorates as the croupier's shadowy nightlife takes over, giving flesh to his skeletal novel. True to the genre, Croupier escalates into an unexpected end.