Life > April 3, 2008

By Jillian King | Staff writer

We all work to make the big bucks. We take endless entrepreneurship classes, do five years of school instead of four, intern for free just to build a resume. So if a get rich quick scheme came along, chances are we’d take it.

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Ben Campbell did.

21, which opened this week to an expected $24 million, masterfully tells the story of Ben and his group of MIT card counters.

Ben (Jim Sturgess, Across the Universe) is a “genius” MIT student — 1590 SAT, 4.0 MIT GPA, 44 on his MCAT. He’s been accepted to Harvard Medical School, but one giant problem presents itself. This is where the rest of us lowly mortals of normal intelligence can relate — Ben can’t pay.

His job, college loans, family money — none of it is enough. Ben needs $300,000.

Good news? There is a full ride scholarship offered.

Bad news? Ben needs to “dazzle” them since last year’s recipient was a Korean immigrant with one leg.

Ben continues to work through his classes at MIT until one fateful night he’s approached by a random classmate.

He’s led to a room where his professor, Mickey Rosa (Kevin Spacey), and four students invite him into their card counting ring.

Despite promises of money that Ben could really use, Ben continues to turn them down. His love interest and ring member Jill Taylor (Kate Bosworth) sways him and Ben enters the ring.

What follows is intense orientation — learning how to count the cards (face cards are -1, low cards are +1, others are 0), learning what each number correlates with (9 is cat, 17 is magazine), and a complicated system of spotters and big players.

Flown out to Las Vegas the day after his first test at an underground gambling club, Ben more than excels at his task.

Over the next few months, Ben earns $315,000 and is caught up in the scheme, to the detriment of his home life.

After a false move one night, the operation goes under.

Without giving details about how this part pays out, suffice it to say there’s blood, tears and a whole bunch of drama.

Predictably enough, Ben’s gallivanting in Vegas does “dazzle” the scholarship board, and everyone lives happily ever after – mostly.

As for the movie itself, its cinematography was unbeatable.

The beginning starts with artistic close-ups of the cards and the chips, and these continue throughout the movie.

They are simply stunning. Certain verbal threads give the movie a certain cohesion as well. The saying “winner, winner, chicken dinner” is oft repeated as is “variable change” and the idea that it helps to be on the inside.

As Ben and his comrades sit at the table, you excitedly watch and count with them. I do wish the process of how they won so often and so successfully was explained more.

Guess I’ll just have to buy the book (Bringing Down the House, available on Amazon.com for $9).

The film’s self-deprecating humor entertains — typical math dork jokes, Geico commercial jokes, Google comments.

When two MIT students are rating a girl they see in a bar, they give her a 7.68 because they “agreed not to round up anymore.”

Most of the comedy is offered by Ben’s friend Miles (Josh Gad), who seems to be a poor man’s Seth Rogan.

Alas, there are some drawbacks; film clichés are frequent.

When Ben goes to his first underground gambling night, he has to go through an alleyway while the streets are wet and there is ominous smoke rising.

Similarly, Mickey tells Ben that counting is “safe” and the movie immediately cuts to an overzealous security guard Cole Williams (Laurence Fishburne) beating an already bloodied “counter” in Las Vegas. Jim Sturgess’ accent leaves a lot to be desired.

The English-born actor cannot always mask his accent.

On the flipside, when he does uphold his neutral American accent, he sometimes peppers his speech with an overdone Boston accent (read: HAH-vad).

There seems to be a bit of plot missing as well. Mickey and Cole have this decade-old beef which is mildly explained by Cole, but I sure didn’t get it.

It ends up directing most of the final scenes so a bit more explanation would have been nice.

Overall, the movie is a winner — and it seems the rest of America is agreeing as well.

Little mishaps ignored, 21 will leave you feeling like I did — itching to fly out to Vegas this weekend to try your own hand at counting.

Alas, facial recognition software may get in your way, but it sure beats studying for that accounting test, huh?