21
0
Posted
March 27, 2008 in
Film
MIT senior Ben (Jim Sturgess) is so geeky his mom (Helen Carey) iced the Fibonacci sequence on his 21st birthday cake. Harvard Med is his dream and he’s been accepted, only his attendance is dependent on winning the full ride scholarship his admissions counselor says he’s not “dazzling” enough to get. Ben’s spent his life sprinting patiently in the hamster wheel only to realize that he’s gotten nowhere because unlike last year’s scholarship winner, he’s not a one-legged Korean immigrant. And so Robert Luketic has made a film about the prohibitive costs of higher education squeezing out middle class aspirants. Or blackjack. Same resonance, right? Luketic and screenwriters Peter Steinfeld and Allan Loeb seem to think so as they quickly scuttle Ben over to the tables and assume we’ll care. Under Fagen-esque math professor Kevin Spacey, Ben furtively learns the ropes of card counting (we don’t) and since he has no emotions—i.e., no irrationality—his first weekend in Vegas he rakes in more cash than he’d make in five years at his minimum wage gig selling suits. 21 is based on Ben Mezrich’s bestseller Bringing Down the House, but could have been funded by the Nevada Tourism Bureau, right down to Ben’s “Stays in Vegas” secrecy. Like the Strip itself, it’s all lights and music throbbing so hard you confuse yourself into thinking you’re having fun. In truth, you’re bored. Bored with the repetitive click-click of stacked chips, bored with the hoots and hollers, and desperate for some actual connection with the characters that are as flat and phony as a grinning stripper on a billboard. With Kate Bosworth as a kick-boxing rocket scientist—no, really—who mainly exists just so Ben can bag a hot chick in front of the Bellagio Fountains, and Laurence Fishburne incarnating Old Vegas’ shriveled soul in scenes that go like this: “You think you can beat the system? [fist to face] This is the system!” (Amy Nicholson)
MIT senior Ben (Jim Sturgess) is so geeky his mom (Helen Carey) iced the Fibonacci sequence on his 21st birthday cake. Harvard Med is his dream and he’s been accepted, only his attendance is dependent on winning the full ride scholarship his admissions counselor says he’s not “dazzling” enough to get. Ben’s spent his life sprinting patiently in the hamster wheel only to realize that he’s gotten nowhere because unlike last year’s scholarship winner, he’s not a one-legged Korean immigrant. And so Robert Luketic has made a film about the prohibitive costs of higher education squeezing out middle class aspirants. Or blackjack. Same resonance, right? Luketic and screenwriters Peter Steinfeld and Allan Loeb seem to think so as they quickly scuttle Ben over to the tables and assume we’ll care. Under Fagen-esque math professor Kevin Spacey, Ben furtively learns the ropes of card counting (we don’t) and since he has no emotions—i.e., no irrationality—his first weekend in Vegas he rakes in more cash than he’d make in five years at his minimum wage gig selling suits. 21 is based on Ben Mezrich’s bestseller Bringing Down the House, but could have been funded by the Nevada Tourism Bureau, right down to Ben’s “Stays in Vegas” secrecy. Like the Strip itself, it’s all lights and music throbbing so hard you confuse yourself into thinking you’re having fun. In truth, you’re bored. Bored with the repetitive click-click of stacked chips, bored with the hoots and hollers, and desperate for some actual connection with the characters that are as flat and phony as a grinning stripper on a billboard. With Kate Bosworth as a kick-boxing rocket scientist—no, really—who mainly exists just so Ben can bag a hot chick in front of the Bellagio Fountains, and Laurence Fishburne incarnating Old Vegas’ shriveled soul in scenes that go like this: “You think you can beat the system? [fist to face] This is the system!” (Amy Nicholson)
