He's a wizard of a dealer, and he's smart. He knows that you gamble or deal, never both. Clive Owen's Jack is an angular guy with a face full of planes, a serious cynic who never breaks a smile, an arrow flying straight in a world of shadows. As narrator, Jack muses to himself and talks to us. We gain from him a palpable sense of the darkness of the gambling business.
Casinos never have windows.
Don't remind the customers of light, they might decide to go outside. The gamblers, professional or passing, are addicted to gaming as surely as one might be to alcohol or nicotine. And gamblers are master smokers. Jack's cigarette hangs from his lip, 40s style, as he moves smoothly to his table in the dark casino. The movie delivers a strong sense of place and of the rituals of the game.