'Casino Jack' misses dramatic payout
Most fans of Kevin Spacey probably know the Oscar-winning actor is a gifted mimic who can replicate celebrity voices with uncanny precision.
He once called “Tonight Show” host Johnny Carson's office and ordered premium tickets for himself by imitating Carson's voice. The secretary thought she was talking to her boss.
So, it probably seemed like an inspired idea to cast Spacey as Jack Abramoff in George Hickenlooper's “Casino Jack,” a drama “inspired by” the true story of the super GOP lobbyist who apparently loved to quote famous movie lines before he was hung out to dry by the very politicians who accepted money from him and his varied clients.
When Spacey cuts loose with dead-on impressions of Al Pacino, Walter Matthau and other recognizable Hollywood icons, the effect undermines what little credibility “Casino Jack” musters as a work of drama, let alone a real-life rise-and-fall story.
How seriously can we take a movie where the main character breaks into movie star impersonations at key moments?
Instead of being a winning con man who draws us into his schemes of wealth and power, Spacey's Abramoff becomes a prickly, irritating presence that fails to explain how so many people could fall for his pitches.
“Casino Jack” opens with a dramatic monologue delivered by Abramoff to himself in a mirror. He justifies his ego and lambastes mediocrity in a succinct speech that instantly and powerfully establishes his character.
Unfortunately, Hickenlooper's limp direction of Norman Snider's obtuse and confusing screenplay never achieves this level of drama again.
Abramoff's arrest for influence peddling during the Bush administration occurs early in the movie, and we get the lobbyist's back story ladled out in anti-climactic flashbacks.
These trace Abramoff's rise to power as a fast-talking lobbyist, who, along with his right-arm helper Michael Scanlon (Barry Pepper), convinces groups with special interests — such as sweat shop owners in the Mariana Islands and Native Americans struggling to preserve their lucrative casinos — to hire him at exorbitant fees to bend the ears of Congressional politicians voting on issues affecting their businesses.
Abramoff's quest for money and power allows him to cast a blind eye to the quality of people he deals with.
So, he hooks up with such partners as Adam Kidan (comedian Jon Lovitz), a sleazoid businessman with connections in the mob and porn industry, and a dangerous Greek owner (Daniel Kash) of casino boats in Florida.
Along with quoting movie lines, Abramoff constantly professes his faith in God and, in a strange personality quirk, constantly informs strangers that he works out every day, but apparently only by using a single light free weight he carries with him.
Abramoff's wife Pam (Kelly Preston) doesn't really want to know what her main squeeze does for a living. Neither does Scanlon's live-in girlfriend (Rachelle Lefevre), except when she discovers evidence of Scanlon's unfaithfulness, and turns the lout in to the authorities.
“Casino Jack” could have been a grand Greek tragedy dressed in modern Washington garb, or an insightful drama underscoring the hypocrisy of Capitol Hill.
No. Hickenlooper's wooden direction makes for a dull and uneventful movie built upon a script that mistakes confusion for complexity, and allows its best asset — Spacey — to come off like he's auditioning for a Las Vegas lounge act.
“Casino Jack”
★ ★
Starring: Kevin Spacey, Barry Pepper, John Lovitz, Graham Greene
Directed by: George Hickenlooper
Other: ATO Pictures release. Rated R for drug use, language, nudity, violence. Opens at the Music Box Theatre, Chicago. 108 minutes