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| Oscar Isaac in "The Card Counter" Photo Credit: RottenTomatoes.com |
One of the things at which writer-director Paul Schrader excels is creating notable films that focus on veterans being plagued by the horrors of their past while trying to get by in the present, which he did in 1976 with “Taxi Driver” and 2018 with “First Reformed.” With these films, we’re given emotionally intense probes into the minds of the main characters as we go along with them to traverse the shattering difficulties that they face.
Schrader has done this once again with his crime drama, “The Card Counter,” finding a new route to take when telling such story and absorbing us in the troubled life of its mysterious main character.
William Tell (Oscar Isaac) is a former military interrogator who’s haunted by things he has done in the line of duty. Passing his days counting cards, he meets a backer named La Linda (Tiffany Haddish), who offers him the prospect of making money through his gambling. Meanwhile, Will gets to know casino visitor Cirk (Tye Sheridan), who requests Will’s help with an unsettling task.
Isaac provides one of the best performances of his career so far. The understated approach that he uses to convey his character’s inner turmoil never fails to make you wonder what he feels guilty about. And, the suaveness and intense focus that Will exhibits shows how skillful Isaac is in having his character mask his grief when spending time in the casino, displaying someone who enters another world each day in order to get away from his unsettling thoughts for a little while. Similar to Robert De Niro in “Taxi Driver” and Ethan Hawke in “First Reformed,” Isaac offers voiceover narration in a few scenes when he writes in a journal, and we see how much he needs this in order to get his thoughts out there about what’s bothering him. However, there’s a scene about a third of the way into the film where Will reveals his past to Cirk, and it’s here that we see Will at his most emotional, but still restrained, with Will becoming misty-eyed as he recounts the horrors that he saw during the war and in which he partook.
Haddish and Sheridan work well with Isaac. Haddish provides a confident transition from her comedic background to something more dramatic as a character who knows the ins and outs of professional gambling and is ready to help her new client. Meanwhile, Sheridan presents someone who seems in control of himself, but carries the risk of being impulsive when it comes to carrying out his plan.
The screenplay by Schrader takes themes like forgiveness and redemption to construct a slow-burn story as we become familiar with Will’s day-to-day routine and learn what heavy burdens are on his mind. By showing Will’s methodical, unsettling actions early on, Schrader keeps us in a state of disquietness as we wonder what these actions will mean for later events of the movie. As we learn about his past little by little, the narrative immerses you in a chilling character study, one that has Will’s fate intertwine with Cirk as they both travel down a path that could ruin them.
Alexander Dynan, who worked with Schrader on “First Reformed,” provides memorable cinematography, using several effective zoom-ins to highlight the quiet intensity of discussions, while also using wide angles in a very unique way in certain flashbacks scenes, offering a heightened degree of unease. Just like how he used a boxy 1.37:1 aspect ratio in “First Reformed” to frame his characters in such a way that captured the intensity of their interactions, his different camerawork achieves the same effect in “The Card Counter.”
Schrader is one of the finest directors working today who can maintain an ominous atmosphere. He establishes an environment where there always seems to be some sort of threat lurking around, making us believe that several of the characters are capable of committing regrettable actions. In the middle of this, he can provide a strong sense of emotional isolation that the main character experiences, giving us the feeling that any relationships that are formed might not last. He provides you with a character in which you become invested, someone grappling with his morals and ethics with the hopes of becoming a better person.
Schrader takes you on difficult journeys where you face challenging questions, and after many years in screenwriting and directing, “The Card Counter” shows that he still knows how to deal a winning hand.
Grade: A
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