Although Lucky You is a somewhat cliché romantic comedy/drama story between Eric Bana and Drew Barrymore, it is the father/son storyline between Bana and Robert Duvall that really shines, and kept me interested in the movie.
Released in May of 2007, Lucky You didn’t find much luck at the theater despite having a big cast, and the direction of Curtis Hanson (L.A. Confidential and Wonder Boys). Hanson also had a hand in writing the script with fellow Hollywood heavyweight Eric Roth (Forest Gump, The Good Shepherd and Munich).
The film is set in Las Vegas, and its plot is fairly familiar. Eric Bana is a slick gambler named Huck – who is great at reading people, playing cards (he is called a blaster due to his style of betting), and charming the ladies. He has dreams of playing in the World Series of Poker, and spends most of the movie trying to raise the $10,000 needed to enter the tournament.
The movie starts off with him in a pawnshop selling a digital camera and hocking his mother’s wedding ring so he can have some betting money. He quickly turns the small amount of cash into a large amount of chips.
Huck’s skill at cards (he doesn’t believe in luck) is taking down the other players, but comes to a crashing halt with the arrival of his father L. C. Cheever (Duvall). The two have a strained relationship (putting it mildly), and L.C. knows how to push just the right buttons to clean his son out of chips.
Later in the evening, Huck meets Billie Offer (Barrymore) – a singer new to the city with $1,000 in traveler checks. Although the first meeting doesn’t go quite as Huck planned, he is able to charm Billie into a “date” and use her money to start rebuilding his tournament stake. We also see how far Huck will sink when he steals Barrymore’s cash after sleeping with her.
The rest of the film is an up and down between the two characters as Huck struggles to figure out how he can open himself up enough to love Billie, and Billie struggles to deal with Huck’s gambling issues.
The actors do a good job keeping you interested in the love story aspects of the film, but just never really seemed to have any chemistry. Bana always seemed more interested in getting back to the card table (as his character would), and Barrymore just seemed to be doing her usual wide-eyed girl role that she has done in so many other romantic comedies. Their scenes together aren’t bad, but don’t hold up to the scenes between Bana and Duvall or the poker scenes where Huck is at the tables.
Duvall really helped save this movie with his performance as Huck’s father. When you first meet the character you don’t know what to think about him. Bana works well with the veteran actor and their scenes seem to have the tension that a father and son with their history would have. The tension pays off towards the end of the movie – where the two square off in the poker tournament.
Hanson does a good job in the director’s chair and uses Las Vegas as a nice backdrop to his story. The city’s bright lights and big casinos help set the scenes for most of the film, but Hanson also makes sure to show some of Vegas’ darker elements – such as the pawn shop scenes, or the fact that Huck lives in a house with no furniture due to his gambling.
Although I thought John Dahl's Rounders’ poker scenes were better at building drama, Hanson makes sure to keep the camera angles interesting during the poker games, and builds some suspense in the tournament. The director also fills the movie with actual gamblers (some famous and some not) so there is a constant feeling of authenticity.
The DVD comes with some decent special features which take you into the making of the film. There are a couple of features where Hanson and the actors talk about using real gamblers to play along side in the movie and help them develop their characters. The gamblers also talk about the film and how the actors handled the roles. There are some deleted scenes included, but nothing that isn’t forgettable.
At first, I wasn’t sure what to think of Lucky You, but started enjoying the movie when Robert Duvall showed up on screen. The performances of Bana and Duvall make the movie worth watching and help it overcome some of its faults and clichés.
Lucky You is now available at Amazon . It is available for pre-order at AmazonUK for an Oct. 22nd release. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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