Jack Manfred is an aspiring writer who, suffering from writer’s block, takes a job as a casino croupier to support his literary ambitions. Jack watches the gamblers with the same sense of cold detachment with which he treats the writing of his novel.

He never bets himself, but when a seductive hottie and a casino regular involve him in a dangerous but potentially lucrative scam, Jack believes fortune is on his side. What he doesn’t realize is that soon the lure of the game will take him much further than he ever imagined.

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Prologue
There are movies that are much more enjoyable to watch than to remember afterwards. British from head to tail “Croupier”, at first glance, is one of those. At second and closer inspection, definitely not. “Tight as a cyclist’s buttocks” and “acting like a slack-jawed sniveling camera” would be no cause for such comparisons in Case No. 22140. The experienced director (71640) shoots his lead actor (2933) in a relaxed manner, gradually immersing the observer in a world of excitement, chance and luck, looping the beginning and the end, going with Jack Manfred from nowhere to nowhere.

Chapter One. Skills.
There are 1440 minutes in a day. It’s 14400 kilometers from London to South Africa’s Sun City Resort. 144,000 days in one baktun of the Mayan calendar. 14400,000 to 1 – the odds of winning the state lottery. Jack doesn’t care about any of that, even though he has respect for numbers. Right now he cares about the sum of £10000. Or maybe he doesn’t. But it all started a little earlier. With a phone call from his father and an offer to help him get a job: there’s a vacancy for a croupier in a London casino. Jack actually writes books, but that’s the trouble – a creative crisis crept up, and there was no handbook “five easy ways to remove the writer’s block. He needs money and inspiration to buy a car that has already sold, and to complete a still unstarted bestseller – working at the casino should help with both tasks.

Chapter Two. Temptations.
Where did blond Jack suddenly acquired the talents of Jack the brunette: the ability to instantly count blackjack points, manipulate the cards and chips with unprecedented dexterity? Where and how did he live before and why does he no longer play any gambling? He says he was born in a casino. Lived in South Africa, was a hereditary croupier there. In his new job, he doesn’t need time to get used to it. At the gaming table, on the other side of luck, he takes the familiar place that promises confidence, comfort and allows you to hold the situation in your hands. Jack knows: He who does not lose, does not play. He cheats. And he does not like cheaters more than the loudest scandals of his girlfriend. Tobacco and alcohol are Jack’s companions. Women – a work colleague, a rich customer with a South African accent – appear and play important roles in his present. The croupier’s nightlife is full of temptations, but chief among them is the opportunity to influence the players’ fortunes while being relatively safe. And these moments last until the word comes out of his own mouth: “Thanks for playing, you have a new dealer.

Chapter Three. Risks.
Another of the advantages of being a croupier is the full right to answer idle questions with a polite smile, without any words; almost like the Buckingham Palace Guards, who don’t even need a smile. Service workers can only dream of such a thing. From shift to shift, when the dealer only says the duty “no more bets” or voices the totals in blackjack, he feels at ease. But there are occupational risks in this trade. Casinos do get robbed. Not as often as armored car dealers, but more often than ice cream vendors. Losing customers, of which the majority – because gambling addiction is a cross, not a good thing – are prone to overexcitement and aggression. And the culprit, as a rule, they see in a man with a butterfly that stands opposite. Threats, insults, boots, fists-anything can get the careless croupier. Jack has had his share, both in the workplace and outside the gambling empire. But Jack loves what he does and still doesn’t like gamblers, though he could beat any casino himself. Only once he stumbled, deciding to help a woman in trouble. He soon realized that much in the emerging scam is covered with white lies, but he dared not retreat. After all, he is also writing a book, and on the possible robbery could get a great material.

Epilogue
In 1998 a movie about Jack and the vicissitudes of his life was made called “Croupier”. It sat on the shelf for a couple of years, then received a scattering of positive criticism and settled in the dusty storerooms of lovers of neo-noir, fans of movies with an aftertaste and admirers of Clive Owen’s animal magnetism in his pre-Hollywood era. Of the many pictures on the subject of writer’s crisis and original ways to end it, such as “Adaptation,” “Barton Fink” and the like, “Croupier” is distinguished by the available emphasis on revealing the nuances of the profession that got into the title of the film and then the book that Jack writes. This is realized through close observation of the whole variety of situations in which the protagonist, the writer and the dealer in the casino – one in two persons – finds himself. The most significant of them are accompanied by the off-screen sound of a falling roulette ball, emphasizing the extension of the laws of the gambling world to the world of human life. Jack Manfred ends up writing one book, and that book may well turn out to be his own destiny. The film throws up plenty of seemingly unremarkable clues, hints, and ambiguous episodes. Beginning one’s reflection on the plot with an analysis of Manfred Sr.’s motives and role in the whole affair, one can eventually fantasize about very bold ideas that call into question, in principle, the reality of all the events shown. “Croupier” only seems simple and linear, with a little surprise in the finale. In fact, it is open to different interpretations, and that is the mark by which it can be classified as a truly successful example of the genre, of which they say “a small gold mine is a dear gold mine. In the homeland of soccer and Shakespeare lives director Mike Hodges, who makes strong movies, about gangsters and not only. His “Croupier” is about the influence of chance on all of us. Writers and readers, filmmakers and viewers. On the way out, the first thing we remember is Owen in the fedora and his final gesture, but not the story of the robbery gone wrong. After all, that’s not the point at all. And the truth, as always, is somewhere nearby.

Info Blu-ray
Video
Codec: HEVC / H.265 (91.6 Mb/s)
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR10
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1

Audio
English: LPCM 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: Dolby Digital 2.0
English: DTS 2.0

Subtitles
English, English SDH.