It Didn't Do A Lot For Me

Rating: 4/10 (31 August 2009)

It was OK. That about sums up my reaction to "21." My primary reason for thinking it was just OK is that the whole thing just didn't ring true to me, in spite of the claim that it's based on a true story. Based on what I've read about the movie's background since watching it, I think I'd describe that as "very loosely based ..." Essentially, the story is about an MIT student (Ben, played by Jim Sturgess) who needs $300,000 to attend Harvard Medical School. How's he going to get it? He's applied for a full scholarship, but although he's brilliant, it's not looking good. Then , along comes one of his math professors (Kevin Spacey), who turns out to be a former gambler who's developed a system for counting cards in Blackjack and then recruits the best and brightest students at MIT to be his team - he teaches them the system and they fly to Las Vegas repeatedly to gamble and share their winnings, until they get caught.
Setting aside the Hollywood deviations from the "true story," I just didn't find this to be all that interesting, nor did I feel any particular sympathy for or closeness to anyone, except maybe Ben's two former best friends, who essentially get the brushoff from Jim once he's embraced his new lifestyle as a high roller. For whatever reason, there was an attempt to build an unnecessary romance into the story between Ben and one of the female gamblers which added nothing to the story. There's a twist near the end that did take me just a little bit by surprise, so I give credit for that, but overall I was disappointed with this. I've certainly seen better (and truer) movies. 4/10