OVP: The Cooler (2003)

Film: The Cooler (2003)
Stars: William H. Macy, Alec Baldwin, Maria Bello, Shawn Hatosky, Ron Livingston, Paul Sorvino
Director: Wayne Kramer
Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Supporting Actor-Alec Baldwin)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

It's a new week, and that means it's time for a new film review theme.  Each week we pick a theme that will put a very thin rubber band around what otherwise would seem like a pretty eclectic bunch of movies from different eras (and usually those rubber bands have an Oscar theme).  This week, what's bunching our five nominees is the category of Best Supporting Actor, the category of grizzled film vets and occasionally leading men slumming it in a plum part in hopes of finally getting their Oscar glory.

It's hard to tell with The Cooler which category this nomination is.  A film from 2003 that has pretty much slipped out of public consciousness, this was a movie that also found its film star in a strange position.  Alec Baldwin had spent most of the 1990's courting a big-screen stardom that never really took place.  While always the most successful of his famous brothers, Baldwin frequently saw his attempts at a more traditional movie stardom fade out throughout the decade, seeing franchise parts go to more bankable actors (the Jack Ryan series being handed over to Harrison Ford) and other attempts at stardom fizzling (The Shadow, The Juror, Heaven's Prisoners).  If you mentioned Baldwin's name in casual conversation when this film came out it would've almost certainly been in connection to his messy divorce from Kim Basinger rather than any upcoming projects in Hollywood; by 2003, he was less a leading man slumming it than more a failed actor who needed the work.

(Spoilers Ahead) The Cooler is the story of Bernie Lootz (Macy), a man who has a weird talent for bringing people, himself included, bad luck (nicknamed a "cooler").  He is hired by a casino boss Shelly (Baldwin), to go to stand next to the tables of people on hot streaks, and as if by magic, they'll suddenly start losing.  At Shelly's insistence (Bernie doesn't realize this until much later in the picture), Natalie (Bello) starts dating and having sex with Bernie, and eventually falls for him.  As a result, Bernie's ability to stop luck changes, which is bad news for Shelly as he's already in the middle of a hostile takeover to keep his casino from modernizing in a way similar to the rest of the Las Vegas casinos.  The film takes on complications as Bernie's son becomes involved in a con that costs the casino $150k, putting Bernie, Shelly, and Natalie's lives at risk.

The film is unusual in that it never really explains why Bernie is a "cooler."  There doesn't appear to be a trick happening here where his presence is so low-key that, maybe, he signals to the dealer by showing up that they need to cheat; that would have made sense.  Instead, we're just supposed to suspend belief that luck is such a tangible, controllable thing that somehow Bernie is able to genuinely quantify and enact it on other people through sheer osmosis.  This is a problem, because the "cooler" aspect of the movie is the only part of this film that is saving it from mob cliche, and since it's arguably the worst executed portion of the movie, it turns when Bernie suddenly has good luck into a big mess.  Maybe this wasn't a problem for others-movies are supposed to be a time to suspend reality-but there seems to be this fantastical element to an otherwise conventional movie with no logic behind it, and it kind of ruined the experience for me.

Baldwin's role is obviously the one that would normally gain an Oscar nomination, but I feel it's undersold.  This is the sort of Baldwin we've come to expect in years since-an authority figure, frequently over his head, but one who is nostalgic for a past that probably never existed except in his memory.  Baldwin gets some stellar monologues where he gets to flex his stage actor roots, but it's pretty blasé, and adds to the underwhelming Best Supporting Actor lineup I've so far encountered in 2003.  This role, however, put him on a different path in his career (with the exception of one horrifying voicemail)-he'd never really get another chance to be a proper leading man again, but the Oscar nomination would transform into a modern-day character actor, someone who could be added to prestige films (The Aviator, The Departed), get a critically-acclaimed role on television (30 Rock), and even finally headline a franchise...albeit behind-the-scenes (Boss Baby).  Baldwin's nomination feels a bit lazy, but it totally changed the life of a once-flailing leading man.