This film is a Paul Schrader film, even if you had only watched 1 film from him, you would know. I like his work, not a huge fan of him but he is definitely a great writer. The film starts with an explanation in card counting and at first I was like there is no way a film can make me learn card counting but then I realized that the movie wasn't trying to teach me card counting. It was just demonstrating that the main character had a lot of free time in the prison to learn that and master poker etc. Then we get introduced to a typical revenge plotline and with slight hints throughout we realize that what the main character wants to do is show the kid that revenge is bs and actually believes that his lesson will work but it is very clear that throughout the journey all the kid thinks of is revenge(Google earth etc.) And in the end the kid actually wins the argument between the two even though he dies(the main character gets the revenge but it is not a clean murder, he wants to get caught after it which I thought was very interesting in terms of character analysis) His love interest(in a way) also provides a lot of symbolism, one being his chance at redemption. The main character is a very complex character and the film is thematically very rich. What I described so far sounds like a 10 but then why 7? Because I didn't feel like I was watching a film. This could have been a better book rather than a film. There is a lot to talk about and it is a memorable experience but I can't say I enjoyed it that much(the suspense was there but only for a short period of time)
Review of The Card Counter
