A man with an unusual talent for keeping a close awareness of every card in play in a simple game of chance uses this talent to gamble modestly, always ensuring he keeps ahead of 'the house' without attracting undue attention.
He meets a young man with a plan for revenge against a mutual enemy. The young man is naive, has no real idea of the full circumstances involved and seems motivated purely by emotion & loss.
The man, wishing to help by convincing him against revenge, offers to travel with him to keep him safe from enacting his plan.
To achieve this, The man seeks backing from a third party who normally he would not associate himself with as it will cost him his autonomy, exposes him to greater scrutiny & may mean he cannot return to his previously chosen game / anonymous pathway through life.
The literal game change is to play directly against other participants for far higher stakes rather than playing against 'the house' to consolidate your advantages.
Things go badly and everybody is compromised.
No-one was keeping count. Least of all the man expected to do so. The game continues without him & without conclusion or closure.
Perhaps other reviewers here might not have been fully cognisant of the US 'war on Terror' & the unlawful incarceration and torture of 'enemy combatants' at numerous 'black sites' around the world or of the political decisions behind the wars in the Middle East.
They should however have an understanding of metaphor, analogy & storytelling if they take film seriously. Patience is a given too.
The Card Counter may not have succeeded fully in its objectives. Perhaps Schrader's handle on the story is too tight & understated. His heightened yet obtuse style is not always well deployed.
It is well shot & directed with good performances and avoids many of the commonplace cliches & pitfalls when covering this sort of subject matter.
Some post production issues. The soundtrack is quite minimal then suddenly leaps out to not always ideal effect. The editing seems a little removed from the context of the acting although the flashbacks are very tightly controlled. The overall mood of the film is sombre & a little oppressive.
Schrader is a little old fashioned (as ever?) and may demand more from modern audiences than they are willing to give but to judge a film with minimal action as boring without attributing any motivation or meaningful purpose to a protagonist 'with a past to redeem' is a mistake.
He meets a young man with a plan for revenge against a mutual enemy. The young man is naive, has no real idea of the full circumstances involved and seems motivated purely by emotion & loss.
The man, wishing to help by convincing him against revenge, offers to travel with him to keep him safe from enacting his plan.
To achieve this, The man seeks backing from a third party who normally he would not associate himself with as it will cost him his autonomy, exposes him to greater scrutiny & may mean he cannot return to his previously chosen game / anonymous pathway through life.
The literal game change is to play directly against other participants for far higher stakes rather than playing against 'the house' to consolidate your advantages.
Things go badly and everybody is compromised.
No-one was keeping count. Least of all the man expected to do so. The game continues without him & without conclusion or closure.
Perhaps other reviewers here might not have been fully cognisant of the US 'war on Terror' & the unlawful incarceration and torture of 'enemy combatants' at numerous 'black sites' around the world or of the political decisions behind the wars in the Middle East.
They should however have an understanding of metaphor, analogy & storytelling if they take film seriously. Patience is a given too.
The Card Counter may not have succeeded fully in its objectives. Perhaps Schrader's handle on the story is too tight & understated. His heightened yet obtuse style is not always well deployed.
It is well shot & directed with good performances and avoids many of the commonplace cliches & pitfalls when covering this sort of subject matter.
Some post production issues. The soundtrack is quite minimal then suddenly leaps out to not always ideal effect. The editing seems a little removed from the context of the acting although the flashbacks are very tightly controlled. The overall mood of the film is sombre & a little oppressive.
Schrader is a little old fashioned (as ever?) and may demand more from modern audiences than they are willing to give but to judge a film with minimal action as boring without attributing any motivation or meaningful purpose to a protagonist 'with a past to redeem' is a mistake.