YNOT at the Movies

The write-director Paul Schrader's somber new drama "The Card Counter" (UK/China/USA 2021 | 109 min.) depicts a mysterious veteran's psychological struggle, which actually has little to do with a poker game, despite its title. Oscar Isaac gives a reserved and precise performance as the titular character who bears a heavy soul in torment.

If you are not a mathematician or do not play poker games in a casino, you might not quite get William Tell's (Oscar Isaac) voice-over explanation about a winning hand. You might be even more puzzled by why he wraps the furniture every time he checks into a motel room. But you will quickly know that William is a former solider at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and he was trained by Major John Gordo (Willem Dafoe) to torture prisoners. After the prisoner mistreatment scandal was revealed, William took the fall and went to a military prison for eight and a half years, where he learned how to count cards in poker games. After he is released, he manages to win many games in modest amounts to avoid attention. He travels city to city alone, and quietly suffers the heavy burden from his past.

During one of his poker game gigs, William is recognized by a young man named Cirk (Tye Sheridan), the son of William's fellow soldier who also took the fall for prisoner abuse. Cirk blames Major John Gordo for his father's tragedy, and wants William's help to take revenge. But William sees Cirk as his opportunity for redemption. He teams up with a gambling agent La Linda (Tiffany Haddish) to win more money for Cirk's college education fund and takes a gamble on Cirk's potential future.

Will real life play out as predictably as counting the deck of cards?

Even though the write-director Paul Schrader doesn't fully explain some of the protagonist's actions, he clearly conveys William's dreary mental struggle and the traumatic impact of the Abu Ghraib experience, with a restrained performance by Oscar Isaac. As a not-so-subtle metaphor, the film constantly features a poker player wearing an American flag tank top while his buddies cheer "USA!" "USA!" besides him, as if to remind us who William has been playing against both on and off a poker table.

William is a loner, seemingly without any friends or family. His only intimate relationship is the awkward romantic relationship with La Linda, which is both inept and coerced on screen, and Oscar Isaac and Tiffany Haddish appear to have little chemistry together.

This film is a good character study by the filmmaker, but its slow-burn pacing and tormented character is definitely not as entertaining as watching a poker game.

"The Card Counter" opens on Friday, September 10, 2021.