Teacher And Student

Rating: Null/10 (31 January 2008)

The teacher is has-been pool shark Eddie Felson (Paul Newman). The student is Vincent Lauria (Tom Cruise), a cocky, overconfident kid who knows how to beat opponents but whose swaggering attitude gets in the way of being taken seriously by professional pool players. At face value, "The Color Of Money" is a character driven story of Felson's efforts to teach young Vincent the importance of psychology and subtlety, en route to the big-time pool tournaments in Atlantic City. At a slightly deeper level, the film is the story of how Felson, with his own personal agenda, uses Vincent as a means to an end.
For pool players the film offers lots of terrific pool playing. For everyone else, the story can seem dull and claustrophobic. Most of the film is set indoors, in dark pool halls. Except at the very beginning, there's a curious absence of cigarette smoke in these places, perhaps an oversight in production design. Camera "takes" are rather long at the film's beginning. And that gets the movie off to a slow start.
Pool playing is not real conducive to great cinema, as it is not particularly visual. Director Scorsese does his best to make the visuals interesting, through quick editing and camera dissolves, especially in the film's second half. And there's plenty of story conflict between Eddie and Vincent, even though one wonders how Vincent can be so mentally ... dense. Perhaps his "attitude" is more a character contrivance, to add interest to the relationship between him and Felson.
Despite wearing too much makeup, Paul Newman gives a fine performance. By contrast, Tom Cruise, with his big pompadour hairdo, is simply annoying. He struts his stuff, huffs and puffs on cue (pardon the pun), but otherwise lacks any sense of subtlety or refinement in emotional expression. I will credit both Newman and Cruise with skill in playing pool, as they made many of the shots themselves.
Overall, Newman's name and the story's connection to "The Hustler" (1961) are what carry this film. "The Color Of Money" is a rather dull, slightly depressing movie that's not nearly as good as the 1961 original, but one that will nevertheless appeal both to fans of Newman and to viewers who enjoy the game of pool.