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The Review - AT THE MOVIES with WILLIAM HALL
Published: 10 April 2008

Kate Bosworth as Jill at the table in 21

Students are top of the table with some underhand tactics

21
Directed by Robert Luketic
Certificate 12a

IT all looks so very easy. Gather a team of bright young maths whiz-kids, and teach them the niceties of 21, otherwise known as baccarat or vingt-et-un.
Then head for the green baize tables of Las Vegas to make a killing.
Provided the kids can learn fast and count cards, it seems their system is foolproof. Under the tuition of their professor (Kevin Spacey in fine form) they employ an intricate system of signals to take the casinos for a ride.
Hands twisted behind your back mean the cards are falling well. Running a hand through your hair tells the others: get out, fast. With Laurence Fishburne as a thuggish security chief advancing through the tables polishing a set of knuckle-dusters, it seems like a good idea.
Spacey enrols IT student Ben (Jim Sturgess) to the outfit, a genius with numbers who learns the ropes inside a week.
He needs $300,000 to see him through Harvard medical school, and then he’s out.
“I’m talking about getting very rich very quickly. It’s Vegas, baby!” he assures the doubting newcomer. “You were born for this.”
But inevitably big bucks lead to big temptation, and, ignoring all the rules in one night of madness, Ben loses the lot in a single throw of the cards.
Now he has to start again – but can he trust anyone on the team after his own betrayal?
Kate Bosworth features as Ben’s smart and sexy team-mate Jill, though we’re never quite sure if she’s actually been planted by the professor for his own nefarious purposes.
There have been numerous films on hustlers taking casinos apart.
But we are drawn into this scam by some lively acting, plus a script that somehow makes sense even though afterwards I couldn’t recite a word of how to break the bank.
If I could, right now I’d be in the casino down the road.

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