Poker drama lacks winning hand

Overlong 'Lucky' doesn't know when to fold 'em

Robert Denerstein, Rocky Mountain News

Published May 4, 2007 at midnight

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We get lots of high-stakes poker and too much pulseless drama in Lucky You, the latest movie to wander through the casinos of Las Vegas. A lackluster romance between characters played by Eric Bana and Drew Barrymore doesn't help raise the ante, either.

Bana, who did strong work playing an Israeli agent in Munich, gives a distressingly subdued performance as Hank Cheever, an expert poker player who happens to be the son of a two-time, poker-playing champ (Robert Duvall). And, no, I couldn't bring myself to believe that Bana and Duvall might have sprung from the same gene pool.

It's no surprise that Lucky You spends a fair amount of time at poker tables. If you're unfamiliar with the game, you may find these scenes boring and extended. Poker remains more exciting to play than to watch, but the movie probably is betting that TV-generated enthusiasm for events such as The World Series of Poker - not to mention the proliferated popularity of the game - may create a ready-made audience.

Still, I'd say that Lucky You - evidently counter-programmed against Spider-Man 3 - faces long odds, and it's not likely to put director Curtis Hanson on a winning streak. Hanson, still best known for L.A. Confidential, last directed In Her Shoes, an overlooked comedy starring Cameron Diaz and Shirley MacLaine. Before that, he digressed with Eminem's 8 Mile. This time, he doesn't infuse the material with enough spark.

On top of all that, the screenplay by Hanson and Eric Roth (Forrest Gump, The Insider and Munich) comes off as a minor effort that tries to create psychological undertow by focusing on Huck's antagonism toward Duvall's L.C. Cheever, the father who split. You needn't be clairvoyant to predict that the movie's eventually going to force a showdown between father and son at the poker table. As good as Huck gets, he can't seem to beat his father at anything.

In the end, though, Huck isn't all that interesting. Early on, we're told that he's a no-commitment womanizer, all hustle. Barrymore, in a typical turn, portrays the one woman capable of breaking through with Huck, yet the script tosses them into a listless on-again, off-again spiral.

What's the kick in watching Huck hold his emotional cards close to the vest? He's supposed to be good at "reading" the body language of opponents, which means Bana spends lots of time sizing up his table mates, an activity that doesn't generate much involvement. We don't feel Huck's desperation as he tries to work his way into the World Series competition, an ambition that forces him to accept backing from a man he doesn't respect (Charles Martin Smith).

The script's attempts at humor seem more digressive than refreshing. In an apparent effort to show that people will wager on anything, we meet a man who has had breast implants as part of a bet. At another point, Huck tries to win a bet that mixes marathon running and golf.

Lucky You tries to turn over a hole-card surprise toward the end, but mostly it shuffles along without whipping up enough tension to keep us at the table for an overlong two-plus hours.

Lucky You

A poker player battles his dad's legacy

• Grade: C-

• Rated: PG-13

• Running time: 135 minutes