Personality Zone

21

 
21, based on a real-life story of gifted college students who employed their way with numbers in a card-counting operation at gambling casinos, doesn't disappoint. The movie combines the caper genre with dark comedy elements and a coming-of-age story. It's strengths: solid acting, sharp dialogue, and complex characters who are both sympathetic and diabolical. There is more to appeal to the pragmatic types than to the cooperative ones -- action, fun special effects that serve the story, and protagonists with Artisan charm and Rational system intelligence. Idealist and Guardian themes (including friendship, family, and life path) are present, but they take a back seat.

Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess) is a senior at MIT and has been accepted into Harvard Medical School. All that stands between him and his dream is money: Harvard Med will cost about $300,000, and his only hope of attending is winning a highly competitive scholarship. After he displays extraordinary math aptitudes in a class, the professor, Micky Rosa (Kevin Spacey) invites him to join a team of students that makes weekend trips to Vegas and clean out the 21 tables. Micky assures Ben that, although this is frowned upon by casino owners, it's legal. Rosa puts up the "capital" that students bet. Ben becomes the most successful Big Player, and gets sucked into the glamor of the game even after he's amassed the $300,000 he needs for school. One reckless night, Ben fails to follow the rules of the system and loses $200,000. The professor retaliates by stealing the cash he's stored in his dorm room and giving him an incomplete that will prevent him from graduating. Micky also abandons the entire group of students in Vegas, leaving them to gamble with their own money. Cole Williams (Lawrence Fishburne) is a consultant for the casinos. He's not only hip to the card-counting methods, he can do it himself. He catches Ben in the act and strong arms him into helping settle a score with Micky, who many years before had cleaned out Cole's casino before retiring from active card-counting.

Verdict: Strong overall. The one weakness -- about 15-20 minutes of "nerd jokes" could have been cut out; we get the point!