'The Cooler': Engaging Las Vegas fairy tale

By Ann Hornaday
The Washington Post

"The Cooler" (103 minutes) is rated R for strong sexuality, violence, language and some drug use.

Bernie has been working at the Shangri-La casino for six years, repaying a gambling debt to the club's director of operations, Shelly Kaplow (Alec Baldwin); in just a few days, the debt will be paid off and Bernie will be free of Shelly, if not of the near-crippling knee injury that his employer inflicted to enforce the debt. But Bernie's plans are changed when he attracts the attentions of an attractive, slightly shopworn waitress named Natalie (Maria Bello). His future may also be affected by the arrival of a corporate adviser named Larry (Ron Livingston), who is lobbying Shelly to update the Shangri-La with IMAX theaters, roller coasters and Muzak that contains the subliminal message "Lose, lose, lose."

Shelly's response to that suggestion — or, more accurately, Baldwin's delivery of the response — is one of the many sublime things about "The Cooler," which was written and directed by Wayne Kramer, making an inventive and assured feature debut here. In an operatic performance as an aging bull facing the end of an era, Baldwin infuses Shelly with an unexpected measure of soul, especially considering that the man is capable of anything in the name of his own greed. Juxtaposed with scenes of shattering savagery and violence are some hilarious monologues, during which Shelly inveighs against the "Disneyland mook-fest" that Vegas has become and bravely vows to defend the old school.

But the main attraction in "The Cooler" is Macy, who has broken out of his usual soft-spoken milquetoast role to become a bona fide sex symbol, albeit not the usual version confected by Hollywood. After the toughest, most honest on-screen love scene in years, Natalie sweetly tells Bernie, "That's okay, I've had worse." These two deeply flawed but fundamentally moral characters proceed to tumble into the kind of puppy love that is so real that viewers will find themselves silently begging Kramer to give their story a happy ending.

That ending is by no means guaranteed: The change in Bernie's luck has expensive implications for Shelly and his casino, a diabolically brilliant twist that soon sends "The Cooler" hurtling into ever more dangerous and violent corners. Through it all, Kramer keeps the storybook nature of this lurid fable alive, with some improbable plot twists and magical-realist screen effects. The result is a surprising, ingenious film whose characters, setting and tonal shifts between innocence and brutality conspire to create a universe that, though recognizable, is very much the filmmaker's own.

Although Baldwin has all the juicy lines (many of them breathtakingly profane), both Macy and Bello turn in bravura performances. Kramer has cast the supporting roles just as astutely, choosing Paul Sorvino to play a troubled lounge singer and Shawn Hatosy and Estella Warren as a love-smacked young couple on the grift.

Much of "The Cooler," including Mark Isham's lush, shimmering orchestral score, is meant to be an elegy to the way Vegas used to be, before it became yet another venue for entertainment-company synergy. Although Kramer portrays the toxicity of early Vegas culture with an unflinching eye, he clearly has a soft spot for the city's rough edges. His ambivalence is embodied by Baldwin's Shelly, whose actions and motives keep shifting until the bitter — or maybe better — end.

By that time, "The Cooler" has become almost excruciating to watch, so high has Kramer ratcheted up the stakes and the tension. But he takes care not to overmanipulate the audience's deep desire for Bernie and Natalie to succeed, at least until the final few minutes, when he strains credulity a bit too far even for this tall tale. Still, it's difficult to hold his whoppers against him. In creating characters of such spirit and life, and in imagining such a vibrant, imaginative homage to the transformative powers of love, Kramer, more than most, has earned the right to push his luck.