Lucky You
May 4, 2007 11:31 a.m. EST
2hr 15min - PG-13 - Drama
Given that this is a movie about Texas Hold 'Em, the question is whether we're in the pre-flop round.
The answer is no, so...lucky us.
When poker-playing dad Robert Duvall wants to send encouragement in the direction of poker-playing sonny-boy Eric Bana, he doesn't wish him good luck.
"Good skill," he says, matter-of-factly, despite the emotional chasm between them.
Because these two professional poker players believe that, in the long run, it's not luck that separates the men from the boys and the winners from the losers.
Their stormy relationship provides the backbone for Lucky You, a know-when-to-fold-'em metaphoric melodrama set in the world of high-stakes casino poker.
The poker-centric Lucky You, which went into production as the Texas Hold 'Em craze was taking off as a televised spectator sport, has been sitting on the shelf for a couple years.
But, although the craze has cooled considerably in the interim, the film offers enough of the timeless nuances and intricacies of the game to hold up as an absorbing divertissement.
Eric Bana plays Huck Cheever, an anything-but-conservative, down-on-his-luck professional poker player who enters the 2003 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.
Another entrant in the competition is L.C. Cheever, Huck's estranged father, an arrogant poker legend, played by Robert Duvall, who has already won this tournament twice and who abandoned Huck's mom years ago, something which Huck remains enraged about.
These two could be headed for a high-profile showdown at the poker table.
Meanwhile, Huck is also romancing lounge singer Billie Offer, played by the slightly miscast but game Drew Barrymore.
He's better and more successful at what he does for a living than she is, but he also brings his poker face to his love life because he considers emotional commitment an inside straight that he's never gonna fill.
Huck is, in other words, more than willing to bluff, but in which game--cards or life?
Veteran director Curtis Hanson (L.A. Confidential, In Her Shoes, 8 Mile, Wonder Boys), who co-wrote the screenplay with Eric Roth, obviously loves the poker milieu, and really does capture it.
But he also lets it overwhelm his story, at times shooting table action in what seems like real time.
That's not terribly bothersome to those of us who respond to the allure of the the game, but it nonetheless slows down the drama and perhaps even disenfranchises non-poker enthusiasts.
Either way, it's impossible not to notice that there's more zest and passion in the sequences set around the poker tables than in the romantic encounters or the father-son exchanges.
Bana, who made this film before he starred in Steven Spielberg's Munich, had to learn to play poker and Barrymore had to learn to sing.
Missions accomplished, and both highly watchable performers acquit themselves ably if not commandingly.
But their romantic relationship plays a third fiddle to not only Lucky You's poker footage but the father-son thrust.
If you're a poker enthusiast, the title will hold and you'll at least break even.
If, on the other hand, you see the game itself as a snooze...well, then, unlucky you.
Copyright © AHN Media Corp - All rights reserved.
 | Starring: Eric Bana, Drew Barrymore, Robert Duvall, Debra Messing SIU - Daily Egyptian, IL - Not wanting to see 'Spider-Man 3" anytime soon? You may be out of luck, because the weekend's only other offering, "Lucky You" doesn't exactly make an ... |
 | Games of Chance New Yorker, NY - by David Denby May 14, 2007. ESPN, by broadcasting the World Series of Poker and other competitions over and over again (much to the dismay of parents with ... |
| Lucky You - $2.5M MyFox WGHP, NC - Lucky You tries to combine a romantic story with the high-stakes world of poker, but comes up with an empty hand. Billie Offer (Drew Barrymore) is a young ... |
 | Drew Barrymore as Billie Offer ComingSoon.net - "Lucky You" thrives as a bleak character drama but fails in its attempts at portraying a perky, idyllic romance. A loner with a gift for cards finds himself ... |
 | "You don't know how lucky you are being a monkey." - Being John ... Film Threat, CA - by Pete Vonder Haar. A few months have passed since Drew Barrymore’s last romantic comedy, which means...it must be time for another Drew Barrymore romantic ... |
 | 'Lucky You' deals more gloss than grit Virginian Pilot, VA - By MAL VINCENT, The Virginian-Pilot. ALTHOUGH a royal flush seems to be prevalent on the local scene this weekend, you may be in trouble with "Lucky You" if ... |
| "Lucky You" A Huge Bomb at the Box Office Poker King - "Lucky You", the poker movie starring Eric Bana and Drew Barrymore, tanked ridiculously at the box office this weekend, barely making more than $2 million ... |
 | Bet On Lucky You EOG.com, Canada - The girlfriend is begging to see “Blades of Glory” so we make a deal. I take her to “Blades of Glory” if we see “Lucky You,” the new poker movie with Eric ... |
| Luck of the draw Courier Mail, Australia - MEETING your favourite all-time actor is something most of us merely dream of, but Eric Bana managed to do just that – and hit it off with him, too. ... |
| It just wasn't in the cards: 'Lucky You' is hardly a pat hand Inside Bay Area, CA - By Bruce Newman, MEDIANEWS STAFF. BET ON IT: ``Oh, honey, with your poor gambling skills and my bad voice, the sky's the limit for us,'' Billie (Drew ... |
| • Don't bet the bank on 'Lucky You' MLive.com, MI - AP Photo. Who will battle it out in the final round of "American Idol?" Check out the latest critic predictions. FORUMS Talk about what's hot (and not) in ... |
| 'Lucky You' deals a lousy hand Richmond Times Dispatch, VA - By DANIEL NEMAN. You've got to know when to hold'em and know when to fold'em. Warner Bros. looked at the poker movie "Lucky You" and decided to fold. ... |
| Movie Review: Lucky You One Bad Beat CardPlayer.com, NV - With apologies to all the world-class poker players and industry insiders who gave their time to “Lucky You.” Warning: The following article contains ... |
 | Lucky You (Curtis Hanson) Exclaim!, Canada - By Radheyan Simonpillai. Director Curtis Hanson is much like the erratic gambler at the centre of his latest film. After displaying his exceptional skills ... |
| 'Lucky You' OregonLive.com, OR - If anyone could take a movie about a bunch of jerks who play poker and make it interesting, it should be Curtis Hanson. Or rather, it should have been. ... |
 | Lucky You misses on the river Sportsnet.ca, Canada - For the first time since “Rounders” in 1998, Hollywood has produced a major motion picture based on professional poker, and this is the first set among the ... |
| Review: Odds Not In Favor Of 'Lucky You' NBC30.com, CT - All things considered, the gambling movie is just about the furthest genre from the romantic comedy. For starters, almost everything about a casino -- if ... |
| Movie Review: Lucky You TeenHollywood.com, CA - Huck Cheever, played by Eric Bana, is a high-stakes poker player following in the footsteps of his father, poker legend LC Cheever (Robert Duvall. ... |
| Box Office Prediction: Will Spidey Beat Pirates? Cinematical, CA - Oh, I could talk about how surprising it was for Disturbia to three-peat, or how even Nicolas Cage couldn't save a dud like Next (or maybe it's the other ... |
 | Movie Screener Pleasanton Weekly, CA - Poker is the protagonist of this drawn-out dramedy from director Curtis Hanson ("LA Confidential"). But when a deck of cards trumps plot and character ... |
 | Lucky You. GreenCine, CA - "Las Vegas is not just the backdrop but the neon-lighted moral reflector of the director Curtis Hanson's latest, Lucky You, a romance involving a man (Eric ... |
| Lucky You ( **1/2 ) AHN - Given that this is a movie about Texas Hold 'Em, the question is whether we're in the pre-flop round. When poker-playing dad Robert Duvall wants to send ... |
| Review: Lucky You Hollywood News, UK - I have lived in Las Vegas for 11 years. I do not know one person who works in a casino or gambles. See how lucky I am? Now, after "Lucky You," I know all I ... |
 | Drew Barrymore a fan of Bana Melbourne Herald Sun, Australia - The star told the Herald Sun that Chopper was one of her favourite Eric Bana movies. "He throws down so hard in that movie, it's incredible. ... |
| Review: Easy to see how deck is stacked for characters in `Lucky You' Albuquerque Tribune, NM - By Phil Parker (Contact). Drew Barrymore only likes Eric Bana because he's good looking. She's either incredibly shallow or has no self-esteem. ... |
| Review: Lucky You Cinematical, CA - Those who go to Lucky You expecting a Drew Barrymore performance that is, at long last, devoid of her half human/half sunflower kitsch will be disappointed. ... |
 | Review: LUCKY YOU A movie about poker. Oh boy. Where's James Bond ... iFMagazine - By ABBIE BERNSTEIN, Contributing Writer. It’s hard to figure out who exactly is the target audience for LUCKY YOU. There are, to be sure, legions of fans of ... |
| LUCKY, INDEED Asbury Park Press, NJ - BY ELEANOR O'SULLIVAN. Why do we go to the movies? Well, some of us want to see good-looking people doing interesting things that we probably would never ... |
| At The Movies Honolulu Star-Bulletin, HI - Eric Bana stars as a high-stakes card player who sets out to win both the World Series of Poker and the affections of a Vegas lounge singer (Drew Barrymore) ... |
 | 'Lucky You': Sick Pony PopMatters, IL - by Cynthia Fuchs. For a single, strangely mesmerizing scene, Robert Downey Jr. shows up in Lucky You. As a scam artist egregiously named Telephone Jack, ... |
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