Hodges wins safe bet with ‘Croupier’

In theaters

CROUPIER, directed by Mike Hodges. Written by Paul Mayersberg. 91 minutes. No MPAA rating. Now playing at the Railroad Square Cinema, Waterville.

Director Mike Hodges — whose classic thriller, “Get Carter,” is one of the best British gangster movies ever — knows a few things about the risks of writing, the risks of love and the risks of gambling, which he seamlessly brings together in his terrific film, “Croupier.”

Just like Stephen Soderbergh’s 1999 film, “The Limey,” “Croupier” is a cold, emotionally removed movie that feels as if it were directed by a street-smart sociopath — one who beat the hell out of his inner child.

Infused with chilly detachment and underscored with noir, the film features a character as icy and aloof as Terrence Stamp’s Wilson in “The Limey” or Michael Caine’s Jack Carter in “Get Carter” (which shouldn’t be confused with Barry Sonnenfeld’s 1995 film, “Get Shorty”).

That character is Clive Owen’s Jack Manfred, a mysterious writer who becomes a croupier at a London casino only to get caught up in a hive of intrigue that threatens to bring him down morally, financially, physically and emotionally.

Recalling a young Sean Connery and a smarter, far more restrained Nicolas Cage, Owens (“Close My Eyes,” “Bent”) is absolutely confident, magnetic, smooth and mesmerizing. This is the kind of performance that galvanizes a career and turns an actor into a star.

It’s also the sort of film where discussing too much of the plot threatens to ruin the experience of watching all that unravels, so we’ll leave it at this: The film works because of what it keeps hidden; it becomes a thriller because of the energy it ignites in all that it conceals; it uses evasion as a means to a gripping end.

It’s deliberate in its ambiguity — and pointedly ambiguous in its details. It has little interest in its characters other than to use them to mount the film’s underlying mystery: What happens when a croupier decides to bet against the odds and gamble with his life?

The answer might surprise you.

Grade: A

On video

ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER, written and directed by Pedro Almodovar. 101 minutes; R; in Spanish with English subtitles.

Midway through Pedro Almodovar’s excellent, Academy Award-winning film, “All About My Mother,” a transvestite named Agrado (Antonia San Juan) stands before a crowd and addresses the countless surgeries she’s undergone to become an “authentic woman.”

“A woman is more authentic the more she looks like what she has dreamed for herself,” she says. And then, leveling the crowd with a raised eyebrow: “It costs me a lot to be authentic.”

Almodovar knows it can take great courage to realize one’s true individualism; he knows that finding the strength to be different can lead to happiness, but often not without first going through an onslaught of pain.

The characters he presents time and again on screen may come from society’s fringe, but the director’s great triumph is in how he blurs the line between his colorful characters and those considered to be conventionally “normal.”

Indeed, Almodovar knows there’s a middle ground where all walks of life unite: the universal search for love and individual truth.

“All About My Mother” is about that search, but it’s just as interested in its infinite variety of women — nuns, prostitutes, flamboyant actresses, deeply devoted mothers, drugged-up divas, emotionally damaged drag queens.

Three classic films influence it: Jean Negulesco’s “How to Marry a Millionaire,” Elia Kazan’s “A Streetcar Named Desire” and Joseph Mankiewitcz’s “All About Eve,” scenes from which are glimpsed early on with Bette Davis blowing smoke at the screen and speaking Spanish — which is so surreal to behold, it’s a moment that could have been directed by Fellini.

Since the film hinges on a surprise Almodovar literally hurls at the screen, those who prefer not to know shouldn’t read further.

The film opens in Madrid with Manuela (Cecilia Roth) and her beloved son Esteban (Eloy Azarin) celebrating his 17th birthday with a trip to the theater to see a performance of “A Streetcar Named Desire.” After the show, they wait outside to get the autograph of the show’s fiery star, Huma Rojo (Marisa Paredes). It’s a scene that ends in tragedy with Esteban being struck down and killed by a car.

The film then becomes Manuela’s journey to find Esteban’s father, a transvestite living in Barcelona, and, of course, the journey to find herself in the absence of her son.

Marked by its outstanding performances, its wit, its big heart and Almodovar’s clear love and admiration of strong women, “All About My Mother” is the director’s best, most assured work to date. Don’t miss it.

Grade: A Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Monday and Thursday in the NEWS, Tuesday and Thursday on NEWS CENTER at 5:30 and NEWS CENTER at 11, and Saturday and Sunday on “NEWS CENTER Morning Report.”