Reviewed by Hannah Spencer.
Director: Paul Schrader, Focus Features, 2021, MA, 112 mins.
The Card Counter is a film that leaves you feeling conflicted.
Much like an adventurous ramen order, it’s not quite what you expected.
Some parts you love, some parts less so, and the ingredients just don’t quite work.
Yet once you’ve put down your chopsticks, finished your last slurp of sturdy broth and perfectly cooked noodles, you are left surprisingly satisfied.
Oscar Isaac (Ex Machina) is hypnotising as William Tell/Tillich, an enigmatic card counter who passes his days playing poker in dingy casinos.
Winning enough, but not too much to be noticed.
William is existing but not really living.
His life of self-imposed purgatory is interrupted by a chance meeting with the young Cirk (Tye Sheridan, Ready Player One).
Cirk is on a mission to avenge his late father, a veteran who worked in Abu Ghraib.
His father’s superior, a torture expert who escaped conviction, played by Willem Dafoe (The Last Temptation of Christ) is what brings Cirk and William together.
Searing flashbacks that feel like a bad acid trip reveal that William also served Abu Ghraib.
His guilt burdens him with a “weight that can never be removed”.
However, the opportunity to steer Cirk away from the path of revenge offers William hope of redemption.
Director Paul Schrader has been working in film since the ‘70s.
Tropes of redemption and revenge are familiar territory for him, and this film has many similarities to Scorsese’s Taxi Driver which Schrader wrote the screenplay for.
Expertly crafted scenes reveal the torture perpetrated by William at Abu Ghraib but also how these memories continue to torture him today.
Both William and the audience are left wondering if he committed these acts because he was an obedient soldier or if the propensity (even talent) existed within him already.
Brilliant cinematography and an incredible soundtrack perfectly execute the soulless and transient world that William Tell exists in.
However, the uninspiring character of Cirk and a romantic interest devoid of chemistry are unconvincing catalysts for the abrupt changes in William Tell’s life.
It is almost as if these characters and plot lines have been plucked from separate movies, poured into a soup pot, stirred around and then served up in the hope that no one would notice.
Outstanding in parts but jarringly discordant in others, film fans will certainly have lots to chew on, however some may wish they had ordered a different meal.
The Card Counter screened at the Sydney Film Festival and is to be released nationally on 2 December.
Hannah’s rating: 3 stars
