3 Short Paragraphs (Or Not): Wild Card

2015, Simon West (Con Air) -- Tubi

William Goldman was a writer known for screenplays for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Princess Bride. After ducking out on Hollywood for a while he went back to novels, one of which was Heat which he adapted into a screenplay for this movie. He wrote it in his 80s; he died not long after. Bruce Cook of the "Chicago Tribune" wrote of Heat and Goldman's post-Hollywood movels, "They are somewhat skeletal in form, reduced to dialogue, abbreviated narrative and a twitchy interior monologue that reads like some kind of high-speed Socratic Q & A..." I have been thinking of writing, as in fiction, for about 20 years semi-seriously (not a single thing completed) and I think it is this kind of writing I would love to do. I should probably read some of Goldman's work.

Anywayz, I had expected the Statham (A Working Man) character, a man "with a particular set of skills" (in this movie: doesn't use a gun, can kill with a spoon) to be an add-in especially playing to Statham's strengths. But no, it is the character from the novel. He is Nick Wild, a body guard in Las Vegas who works out of a strip mall, and is listed as "chaperone" in the phone book. This is fictional Vegas of the recent past, less The Strip and its franchise resort hotels, and more the grotty casinos, multi-bulb marqui's, run down motels and diners. Despite the movie shooting in, and taking place in the mid-2000s, it looks older, looks more 70s or 80s. And sticks to the neo-noir tones.

Nick has a plan. He has calculated exactly what he needs, down to the last dollar, to head to Corsica, buy a sailing boat, and spent a number of years just living that life. He also knows that he will eventually run out of money and have to come back to reality. He also kind of knows that he is a degenerate gambler, more likely to lose the money rather than fund this fantasy.

He hears that Holly (Dominik Garcia, Magic City), a friend of his and escort, needs his help and finds out that she was horribly beaten and raped by three mobsters from "back east". She wants revenge. Nick wants nothing to do with it, as he always told her to stay away from The Golden Nugget and its notorious mob connections. But Nick relents as all loyal heroes do and confronts the three in their room. Like all four-colour mobster Bad Guys, they attempt to mock and intimidate Nick, only to find him more than capable of dealing with them. After subduing them, he invites Holly over to exact her revenge. Nick doesn't seem too concerned with how far it will go, but she only humiliates their "boss" but leaves all three men alive, taking a $50K stash. Nick and her split it and she leaves town, as he originally advised.

With his money in hand Nick returns to Cyrus Kinnick (Michael Angarano, Sky High), the client who hired him earlier that week, a nervous young man who wants to have a quiet time in Vegas but feels he will be taken advantage of. Nick takes him to a small off The Strip casino where he can gamble in privacy. And Nick begins to gamble his money away, doing surprisingly well, like ASTOUNDINGLY well, making his Corsica money and then some. Until the mania grips him and he loses it all.

Meanwhile, the back-east mobsters think they can ambush him, but fail, and eventually go to Baby (Stanley Tucci, The Electric State),  the old-school mobster who runs the Golden Nugget. They seem to have an amicable relationship but a complaint has been made, and Baby must deal with it. Exceeept, DeMarco (Milo Ventimiglia, This Is Us), the humiliated leader of the back-easters has actually killed his two henchmen, who witnessed his humiliation (crying like a baby), and is trying to pin it on Nick. I really don't think Baby would have cared one iota that they beat and raped a prostitute but lying about who Nick is while murdering his own men on Golden Nugget property is not something Baby can stomach. He releases Nick, and DeMarco, with a warning for the guy to head back east.

As we dial out of the movie, Nick is broke again, and about to return to his old life, when Cyrus reveals he is a tech mogul and he came to Nick, not as a gambler seeking a chaperone, but for guidance as to how to banish his own internal fear. Nick is a man of action, a code, and bravery to back them up. Cyrus needs some of that. He offers Nick all the money he needs, and the plane tickets to Corsica, when they are interrupted by DeMarco with a vast number of henchmen. Cyrus distracts them by making a singing fool of himself, allowing Nick to escape out the back door, where he makes quick work of them.... with a spoon or something similar. And he finally kills DeMarco. Nick has no choice but to leave Vegas and takes Cyrus's check.

I do love a noir-adjacent movie. There is a moll in need of our broken hero's help. There are mobsters and seedy bars and run down motels and diners serving up greasy food. Nick's not a detective in a wide brimmed hat but he is a man with a violent past more than capable of taking care of himself. Its a familiar story told well with the expected but well-rounded characters.