The Cooler  
 

Bernie Lootz: William H. Macy

Shelly Kaplow: Alec Baldwin

Natalie Belisario: Maria Bello

Larry Sokolov: Ron Livingston

 

Directed by Wayne Kramer

Written by Frank Hannah & Wayne Kramer
I have never been to Las Vegas, but I have seen it portrayed many times on film and on television.  There's the old Vegas with the Rat Pack and Elvis and serious gamblers, and then there is the new Vegas with the huge modern hotels and casinos with roller coasters designed for families with kids.

In The Cooler, there is a side story about this change and the casino boss who feels that Vegas is losing its soul with the move to modernity.  This side plot is infinitely more interesting than the main story of the movie, but it gets thrown under the rug and used as a device to set up and execute the eventual ending. 

The main story involves the fate of Bernie Lootz (William H. Macy), who is employed by the casino as a cooler.  A man whose luck is so bad that when he sits next to gamblers on hot streaks, their luck immediately turns cold. 

He eventually runs into Natalie (Maria Bello), a waitress at the casino, and they develop a relationship that turns Bernie's luck and puts his job status at peril.  There is also the unexpected arrival of Bernie's good-for-nothing son and his pregnant wife, which predictably gets Bernie in even more trouble.

Alec Baldwin plays the casino boss Shelly Kaplow.  He does such a great job in this role that you sometimes forget about how embarrassing the rest of the movie is.  The plot takes you in conventional directions and the director uses shots and angles as if to say "look at the cool things I can do with the camera."  Unfortunately, they're not cool, but distracting.  It is an attempt to make a stylish Vegas movie, but comes across as insincere and boring.