Big bets, low payoff

Virtually unknown last year, Jim Sturgess quickly gained some worldwide popularity due to his performance in the Beatles-inspired musical “Across The Universe.” While throngs of females scream for him as if he really wrote the songs in “Universe,” his upcoming choices will determine is career trajectory. So far, he’s on shaky ground, having a supporting role in the melodramatic mess “The Other Boleyn Girl.” Sturgess needs his new film, “21,” to advance, not impede, his career.

“21” follows Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess), a Massachusetts Institute of Technology genius who has just been admitted to Harvard Medical School but doesn’t have the $300,000 for tuition. After shining in Professor Mickey Rosa’s (Kevin Spacey) class, Rosa invites Ben to become a member of a blackjack card counting club. Even though he knows it’s wrong, Ben joins to pay for school and because his crush Jill Taylor (Kate Bosworth) is in. Ben and the rest of the team head to Vegas on the weekends – counting cards, winning big money and becoming whole new people, until it all catches up with them.

This is the kind of film that requires the viewer to suspend all ideas of a “good” movie, or “quality” dialogue, in order to enjoy it. “21” doesn’t make that too hard. The plot, lifted and fictionalized from a nonfiction book, is ridiculous in its improbability, and the dialogue is continuously over-the-top. Nevertheless, the film manages to be damn exciting in its ever-increasing pace.

Aside from the over-dramatics, the film’s primary issue is that it slides into classic (read: cliche) progressions as characters stab each other in the back, reunite and then screw each other over again. There’s not one turn that can’t be predicted.

The interactions and arcs are as elementary as you can get. Who could’ve guessed that the old hotshot on the team would get jealous of our hero? Or that the self-centered hero wouldn’t just quit after winning the money for school and instead take his talents too far, screwing his “real” friends in the process?

The performances, however, are solid. Sturgess does an excellent job carrying the weight, and his character’s arc is at least somewhat realistic. Spacey is legit as always, proving he’s better as a supporting actor. His Mickey Rosa character is slimy and over-the-top, right up Spacey’s alley. Those two really propel the film, as Bosworth is as wooden as ever and Laurence Fishburne’s turn as security agent Cole Williams is awful and confusing.

“21” takes itself too seriously in parts, reducing its heightened plot to screwball farce. Yet, the film is fast-paced enough to entertain the audience throughout, which is all it should do anyway. It’s not a film to put a lot of chips on, but it’s good for a handful of thrills you won’t want to admit you had, just like a weekend in Vegas.