The Cooler

Directed by Wayne Kramer, The Cooler follows William H. Macy’s Bernie Lootz as his skill for ruining the good luck of gamblers is threatened after he falls for a pretty waitress (Maria Bello’s Natalie). Filmmaker Kramer, armed with his and Frank Hannah, offers up an exceedingly deliberate yet mostly engaging drama that benefits from its raft of above-average performances, with Macy’s predictably stellar turn, which certainly proves effective at anchoring the proceedings on a regular basis, matched by such top-notch periphery players as Ron Livingston and Paul Sorvino. (It’s ultimately Alec Baldwin’s engrossing work as Bernie’s old-school, hot-tempered boss that remains a perpetual highlight, however.) And while the picture has been sprinkled with a handful of outwardly enthralling sequences, including a heated, violent confrontation between Baldwin and Livingston’s respective characters, The Cooler, saddled with a distractingly grating score by Mark Isham, never quite becomes the wholeheartedly compelling (or satisfying) endeavor that one might’ve anticipated – although, having said that, the movie is undoubtedly completely (and compulsively) watchable from start to finish.

**1/2 out of ****