Poker Face (2022)

Summary: A group of boys in Australia become life long friends, one of them Jake Foley showing a particular aptitude for poker. He goes on to become a professional gambler and initiates an on line poker game, afterwards using the same software with adaptations to be capable of monitoring individuals, making it saleable to governments. Jake’s right hand man, Andrew, helps him set up a meeting with his three other friends at his isolated luxury house, which they drive to in their choice of luxury cars. There they are given the opportunity of walking away with the cars or engaging in a poker game, each given a stake of five million. They gamble, and as the evening progresses each reveals something. One is having an affair with Jake’s second wife, another is being blackmailed by his own brother and the third is a suicidal alcoholic. Meanwhile a group of robbers and Jake’s wife and daughter are all on their way to the house.

Content: No sex or nudity, just a bit of social drinking. The friends, as boys get together at a swimming hole. Jake has an enigmatic discussion with an artist at a gallery. The guys go to the house and in a fairly elaborate set-up congregate round the poker table and play. Once the robbers arrive they hide in a citadel, that is until the wife and daughter appear, when something has to be done. It turns out that Jake is dying of cancer, hence the whole business. In a tricky scene with a shaman in the woods, Jake is given a drug which in small quantities causes hallucination and in large quantities will kill.

A View: It’s a curiosity isn’t it. A film written and directed by one of the world’s most famous actors, but in the end not much liked by anybody. I found the house interesting but the story of what would you do if you were dying but had unlimited wealth less so. Unfortunately you could almost hear the wheels turning. But it is a film that you might have on for nothing while doing something else. A shame really.

Some other gambling outings reviewed on this site include: Last Vegas and Runner Runner, neither of which I would actually recommend. However, Maverick from 1994 is fantastic.