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It’s one of those stories that seems like it came straight out of Hollywood: brainiac students from MIT team with a slimy professor to count cards in Vegas, making a killing. And while 21, the film loosely based on Ben Mezrich’s true story Bringing Down the House, isn’t a total winner as either a “inspired by a true story” movie or as this generation’s answer to Rounders, it keeps viewers at the table long enough to cash in on a deck stacked with pure entertainment.
The movie follows Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess), a young math whiz whose proficiency in the classroom leads his teacher (Kevin Spacey) to encourage Ben to join a covert blackjack team. By counting cards and using an elaborate system to signal other players to a table heavy with favorable draws, the team scores hundreds of thousands of dollars every weekend that, once split six ways, can help Ben pay his way into Harvard Medical School. Ben’s time away from school alienates him from his friends (Josh Gad and Sam Golzari) but brings him closer to his foxy blackjack teammate (Kate Bosworth), and his smart play draws the attention of a grizzled security chief (Laurence Fishburne), forcing him to reconsider his place on the team and in life.
Packed with quick cuts and chases scenes, the treatment of fact here is a little too stretched to get away with the movie’s “true story” angle – even though it is – but that doesn’t really matter. It’s difficult to resist the glitz and glamour of Vegas, and just as Ben gets sucked in by all the excitement, so do we. The ensemble cast is strong, with Spacey in his element and Sturgess turning in a confident performance, though his natural British accent slips into his character more often than it should.
Is 21 a perfect movie; something that will be competing next awards season? Certainly not, and it doesn’t seem to aspire to such lofty heights. But in a climate of some pretty lame offerings at the theater, it’s a safe bet.
Rating: * * * ½ of 5