Featured Actress: Maria Bello - Sometimes the acting makes a mediocre story worthwhile, and that's the case in this 2003 drama/romance. Outstanding performances by William H. Macy, Maria Bello, and Alec Baldwin make up for a plot that's sometimes slow and thin in the middle, but with a cool ending. Maria's nude scenes didn't hurt, either. :-)
Macy plays a "cooler", a guy whose luck is so bad he's used as a jinx by a mob-run Vegas casino, to kill the luck of patrons on a winning streak. He does his job well; just touching a roulette table will stop a run, until he falls in love with a cocktail waitress. When love causes his luck to change, his crooked boss is less than pleased. Despite it's flaws, this very well-acted movie is worth watching.
The movie was originally rated NC-17, then re-edited to get an R rating before release. Apparently they didn't release the NC-17 version (yet), but I sure wish they would.
