The world of the casino has always inspired a rich source of inspiration for movie makers, with its themes of risk, uncertainty and trusting everything on the turn of a card. Hollywood has created its share of casino-themed blockbusters, such as Ocean’s Eleven and its sequels, but some of the best and most thought-provoking movies on the subject have been brought to us from north of the Canadian border.
Maybe it’s because its closer links to Europe make the nation’s filmmakers more comfortable with the whole gambling topic. After all, there are dozens of Canada mobile casino sites out there and Canadians are estimated to spend $30 billion each year gambling online at real money casinos. We will leave that for the psychologists to figure out, and here, we’ll take a look at three examples of great Canadian casino movies. How many of them have you seen?
Lucky Girl (2001)
Canadian director John Fawcett brought us this early vehicle for Elisha Cuthbert as the lucky girl of the title. Cuthbert was just 18 at the time, and the movie went on release just as 24 shot her to stardom.
She plays Kaitlyn, a high achieving student who develops a fondness for gambling. When a lucky lottery ticket opens the door on a trip to Amsterdam, she only finds herself falling deeper down the rabbit hole. If any movie should be played in high schools to warn students of the dark side of gambling, this is the one.
Owning Mahowny (2003)
Like a fine wine, this movie just seems to get better and better with every passing year. The late great Philip Seymour Hoffman slips effortlessly into the role of Dan Mahowny in this true story of a Canadian bank manager who steals $10 million to bankroll his gambling addiction and sets off to Atlantic City in search of the big win.
The success of the movie is all about its lead actor. In anyone else’s hands, it could easily have become mawkish, but Hoffman is so in tune with the role, we get a unique glimpse of what it is really like to be spiraling into addiction. A must see for any admirer of the great man’s work, this is arguably his best ever role.
Cold Deck (2015)
Director Zack Bernbaum filmed this on a shoestring budget and has created a little gem that will make you laugh and despair in equal measure. Stefano Galio plays Bobby, a poker player who is never quite good enough to make it profitable. His ailing mother disapproves of his gambling, while his friend tells him about a high stakes tournament that could solve all his problems if he can only find the buy-in.
The plot and, indeed, the characters will not be unfamiliar to fans of the genre, but Cold Deck stands out through making no effort to sugar coat – Bobby is reprehensible and unlikable. It also makes good use of humor to intersperse some shafts of sunlight into its darker moments.