Oscar Isaac gives a quietly riveting turn in absorbing "The Card Counter"

The Card Counter (2021)

Paul Schrader’s “The Card Counter” may be more austere than audiences will be expecting, but writer-director Schrader having full authorship should be enough of a clue. It’s not really a film about gambling; in fact, it’s as much about poker and blackjack as “Taxi Driver” (which Schrader wrote) is about cab services. The thread connecting Schrader’s body of work seems to be brooding, lonely men who are full of pain and fury just bubbling beneath the surface. With one of those men at the center, “The Card Counter” is more about guilt, accountability, and redemption, and it’s as precisely crafted as to be expected.

Oscar Isaac is quietly electrifying as William Tell—Will, for short, so yes, “Will Tell”—a haunted ex-military interrogator who has just finished ten years in prison. In those years, he has taught himself how to win in poker and blackjack. Will desires a regimented life, making enough money at gambling in casinos but preferring to keep his winnings modest and low-stakes as to not raise suspicion. Making his way through the gambling circuit, he’s soon approached by La Linda (Tiffany Haddish), a backer who wants to make Will part of her stable of players. Then at a global security seminar in the hotel, he crosses paths with Cirk (Tye Sheridan), who wants Will’s help to set things right. Cirk is the son of one of Will’s fellow Abu Ghraib interrogators, who killed himself, and wants revenge on Major John Gordon (Willem Dafoe), who forced both Will and Cirk’s father to use torture methods on their enemy. As Will tries taking the kid under his wing, every chip could lead to Will atoning for his sins.

Seemingly loose in its plotting but actually tight as a glove, “The Card Counter” is more of an absorbing character study that moves at a simmer. Writer-director Paul Schrader never makes the mistake of playing all of his cards right away. There’s noir-style voice-over from Mr. Tell himself, but there is still a whole past to uncover that has left Will shattered from the inside and just functional on the outside. Like Travis Bickle and Reverend Ernst Toller (Ethan Hawke’s character from Schrader's excellent 2018 film “First Reformed”), William Tell is a mystery, an under-the-radar man of despair yet comfortable with life being a prison because it’s all he knows. When he stays in a new city and checks into a cheap motel, Will wraps and ties every piece of furniture in his own white linens to make it feel more like home: an anonymous prison cell. Like a nagging reminder of Will’s war crimes, Schrader incisively makes one of Will’s card opponents “Mr. USA” (Alexander Babara), a Ukrainian man, decked out in patriotic colors and followed around by his crew chanting “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!” 

Although Tiffany Haddish is an absolute treasure, it’s hard to get a handle on La Linda as a character. Haddish still can’t help but hold her own on screen, but La Linda feels underwritten, left to be a possible bright spot of human connection in Will’s life. There are lovely moments, like a brief scene where La Linda takes Will to the illuminated Missouri Botanical Garden and a final shot that is just sublime. As much as Will deserves hope, this romantic relationship still never quite convinces.

From just the retro opening credits (which roll over the green felt of a blackjack table), “The Card Counter” recalls the look and mood of cinema of yore. Crisply photographed by cinematographer Alexander Dynan, the film holds real texture and weight in nearly every frame. Will’s nightmares of the dingy prisons in Abu Ghraib are depicted like a disorienting hell, as Dynan uses a fisheye lens and VR technology to unforgettable effect. The sound design is menace incarnate, hovering over the film like someone breathing heavily. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club bassist Robert Levon Been contributes to composer Giancarlo Vulcano’s pulsing electronic score with songs on the soundtrack, including “Mercy of Man” in the film’s moving final scene. Muted as some of its dramatic beats might be, there’s such a cool, often hypnotic confidence to Paul Schrader’s filmmaking that he must still be playing with a full deck.

Grade: B

Focus Features is releasing “The Card Counter” (112 min.) in theaters on September 10, 2021.