Lucky You (2007)

Overall rating from 1 to 100: 73

O Masterpiece (95-100)
O Excellent (75-94)
X Good video rental (60-73)
O Merely OK (50-59)
O Pure mediocrity (30-49)
O Medusa: don’t watch (1-29)

Review by Jason Pyles / May 11, 2007

Sometimes I wish E.T. (not Entertainment Tonight but the extra terrestrial) had taken Drew Barrymore back “home” with him. “Lucky You” is one of those times.

This movie is quite good. “Lucky You” keeps its head above water, but it has a heavy anchor chained to its ankle, trying to drag it down to drown in the shadowy depths of mediocrity: you guessed it, Drew Barrymore is said anchor. It’s a good thing that Eric Bana and Robert Duvall are such strong swimmers.

Huck Cheever (Eric Bana) is an excellent poker player. He can read just about anybody’s poker face. Huck can sit down at a table in Vegas with $150 in chips and leave with 10 grand. In fact, that’s what he does for a living: Huck is a professional gambler.

But Huck has a problem (in addition to being a compulsive gambler): He’s had a falling out with his father, L.C. Cheever (Robert Duvall), the man from whom he’s learned everything he knows. L.C. is a poker legend in Las Vegas. He’s won the “World Series of Poker” twice, and is going for his third win. Huck hopes to play in the same competition this year.

We follow Huck on his daily routine of recklessness. He pawns something — anything — even if it doesn’t belong to him, to have some money for the tables. Then he wins big and somehow, as gamblers do, loses big. Ironically, Huck’s lifestyle is the very lifestyle that made him resent his father so much.

As he prepares for the big poker tournament, Huck meets Billie Offer (Drew Barrymore), and is wooed by her artificial innocence and strained naivety. Oh, it’s all supposed to be authentic, but the occasionally talented Barrymore doesn’t play it that way — hence the anchor.

Eric Bana, on the other hand, impressed me immensely in “Lucky You.” After 2003’s big, green flop “Hulk,” I had pretty much written him off. I now stand corrected. Bana plays a poker-faced tough guy just as well — if not better — than anyone in “Maverick” (1994), which is a similar poker movie starring Mel Gibson and James Garner. (I recommend renting “Maverick,” too.)

(Note: Both “Lucky You” and “Maverick” can be enjoyed and understood, even if you have no knowledge of how to play poker.)

And Robert Duvall is one of the best actors in show business. From his Tom Hagen in “The Godfather” (1972) to his zealot, Sonny Dewey, in the masterpiece, “The Apostle” (1997), Duvall inhabits his roles and fills the screen, every time he’s cast. He and Bana are the two reasons to eventually see “Lucky You,” especially when they’re onscreen together.

I don’t know that you’d need to pay theater prices to see this movie, but know this: Since many video rentals are a gamble, rest assured, “Lucky You” is a sure bet.

Directed by Curtis Hanson
Eric Bana / Robert Duvall / Drew Barrymore
124 min. Drama / Romance
MPAA: PG-13 (for some language and sexual humor)

Copyright 2007.
JP0100 : 472