21
Rated PG-13 for some violence, and sexual content including partial nudity.
reviewed by Christopher Lyon
"21" is based on a true story about some MIT students who used their giant math brains to make some money by counting cards to win at blackjack in Vegas. Here's a tip: You can tell how seriously you're supposed to take a movie "based on true events" by how attractive the actors are. In this case, you have a collection of model-attractive actors pretending to be brilliant. First guess: not a serious movie. But wait! The lead actor has two more realistic-looking friends (one is even overweight) and an Oscar-nomiated teacher with a receding hairline. That jumps it up on the "serious" scale to about a five out of ten.
The Story
Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess) is a sad math genius. He hangs out with his two longtime geek friends, and they build robots together and complain that they can't get any girls to like them. He's about to graduate from MIT with a 4.0 GPA and an impressive resumŽ. That should help, yes? No! Ben has always dreamed of going to Harvard med school, but it costs $300,000. He's broke. He might win a scholarship, but that's looking iffy.
Everything changes when a math teacher notices the shiny brilliance of Ben's mind. Professor Micky Rosa (Kevin Spacey) hosts a club of five mathletes who work a very complicated system to count cards and win at casino blackjack. On most weekends, they fly from Boston to Vegas to make a payday. They want Ben to join them. He resists, then complies, then learns the ropes, then falls for Jill Taylor (Kate Bosworth), a fellow cardsharp and the girl he's been longing for since time began.
It's a tricky gig. The system works, and Ben is great at it. It's not technically illegal, but all the casinos have security guys that beat up card counters and send them packing. Cole Williams (Laurence Fishburne) is a longtime security expert/thug who is being forced into retirement by new technology. But he's starting to catch on to Ben and the team. That's trouble.
Also trouble: Ben's success is going to his head. He's beginning to questing Prof. Micky's strong-arm "business" tactics. He's ignoring his studies, his realistic-looking non-gambling friends, and their mutual robot. He's buying expensive sunglasses and swaggering through casinos to groovy music. That can mean only one thing: the bottom is about to fall out. He could lose any chance of going to Harvard and keeping the girl -- and maybe even of graduating from MIT. He's got just one more shot to make things right.
The Verdict
The film is winning over about a third of critics. Here's what our positive/negative reviewers think:
Fanboy says: This film is way better than I would have expected. A movie about MIT math kids playing cards? How could that be exciting? But it is! I had no idea what was coming at the end of the film. Jim Sturgess ("Across the Universe," "The Other Bolyen Girl") is awesome as both likable, hardworking Ben and arrogant, power-mad Ben. Kevin Spacey and Laurence Fishburne are intense and a little scary, and they bring some needed weight to the movie. It's not a big, important film, but it's a fun 90 minutes with kind of a good message. I liked it.
Cranky Critic says: Could a movie be any more predictable -- or less believable? I know its supposed to be based on a true story, but I'd guess the facts have been stretched like Silly Putty. Director Robert Luketic ("Legally Blonde," "Monster-in-Law") and his team carefully touch all the expected bases one after another. To do so, though, they want us to feel sorry for a guy about to graduate from MIT with a 4.0. Come on! And the film just never reaches the sense of either excitement or danger you'd expect these students to be experiencing. It makes the "Oceans 11" movies feel like high drama. In the end, I didn't care how things turned out for any of the characters -- and that makes for a forgettable movie.
Content: In a college bar in Boston, we see two girls kissing and two others dancing provocatively. In Vegas, there's a longish, awkward sex scene. Also, barely covered, gyrating, lap dancing strippers get screen time. In addition, there's some harsh language and two scenes of Laurence Fishburne hitting guys until their faces bleed.
Worldview
On the surface, "21" seems to be a cautionary tale about the dangers of trying to get rich quick by beating the system. The film never comes right out and says that "counting cards is wrong." But it's clearly wrong enough to require lots of lying, running, hiding, fake IDs, and eventually even disguises. Really, the story is about "hubris," the arrogance of thinking you're enough smarter or stronger than everyone else to get away with something. Ben's hubris leads him away from what he previously valued and into lying, strained relationships, and near destruction.
Proverbs also warns against hubris, trusting our own abilities and ideas more than we trust God's direction for us:
"When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom." (Proverbs 11:2)
"Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall." (Proverbs 16:18)
That's exactly what happens to Ben, as he would agree by story's end.
The movie offers another worldview, though, that runs against the Bible's view of wisdom. Ben is told that he looks great on paper, but that he needs some "life experience" so he can dazzle a scholarship board. By the conclusion, Ben packages himself as a wiser person for having had the life experience of cheating at cards, telling lies, and all the rest of his adventures. It would make for a dazzling personal story.
However, James made a clear separation between worldly wisdom and true wisdom. Worldly wisdom look a lot like Ben's story: "Such 'wisdom' does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice."
God's Wisdom looks different: "But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere." (James 3:13-17)
We're never better off for having sinful life experiences like Ben's. We might be smarter in the sense that we've learned the painful consequences of wrong choices, but wisdom is judged by whether or not we're living wisely right now. Wise living doesn't always dazzle in the moment, but it always adds up to a more meaningful life.
Questions:
- What's your take? Fun Vegas thriller or a forgettable, unbelievable 90 minutes? Or both?
- What's your favorite caper movie? Gambling movie? Vegas movie?
- Do you think you ever unconsciously judge a film by how pretty the cast is? Why or why not?
- Do you think it should be off-limits to count cards if someone is smart enough to be able to pull it off?
- Have you ever felt that you were guilty of "hubris," arrogantly doing what you wanted because you thought nobody could stop you?
- Is all life experience valuable -- even the experience of indulging in sinful choices?