“You got a visitor.”

From The Card Counter.

After serving eight years in prison for his illegal interrogation methods, William (Oscar Isaac) returned to life on the outside a skilled gambler and card counter. Treasuring his anonymity while using his skill, William travels the country going from casino to casino, winning small amounts of money. However, he has not evaded the attention of recruiter La Linda (Tiffany Haddish) who connects talented gamblers with financial backers, but since William attributes his success to keeping focused on small winnings only, he refuses. When William visits a security convention being held in his current casino, he sits in on a presentation by Major John Gordo (Willem Defoe), the civilian contractor that–despite training William and the other soldiers in all their interrogation techniques–faced no punishment for his involvement. On the way out of the session, a young man named Cirk (Tye Sheridan) gives William a phone number, telling him to reach out if he would like to talk about Gordo. William is intrigued and reaches out to find out that Cirk is the son of a fellow interrogator that was also dishonorably discharged for his actions under Gordo’s guidance, and before killing himself, spent years abusing his family. Cirk is planning to abduct, torture, and kill Gordo for his involvement, but William wants to deter the young man from seeking revenge, so he offers to let him travel with him from casino to casino to both give him another purpose and an escape from his revenge. In order to give Cirk a chance at a new life, William except La Linda‘s offer to join a poker tournament with financial backers to cover Cirk’s school debt and give him a chance in a new life, but changing Cirk’s mind proves more difficult than William expected.

This dramatic film is odd to say the least but yet somehow manages to keep the viewer glued to the screen to see how it all ends. Isaac impressively presents his character’s tortured soul, but some motivations are never quite fully realized. More developed than the trailer suggested, The Card Counter is a movie with interesting elements that tries to captivate audiences, but unfortunately will leave many indifferent.

| Rated: R | Running Time: 102 minutes |Genre: drama|

||Family Viewing||Cursing: 4* of 10|Nudity: 4 of 10|Sexuality: 2 of 10|Gore: 4 of 10

|AVAILABLE FOR HOME VIEWING|