The Cooler (2003) Reviews

A while back, Wayne Kramer made ‘Running Scared’, a movie barely seen when it was released but which eventually became a cult-classic and probably the only movie starring the recently deceased Paul Walker which actually received some decent reviews. Later on, Kramer would make the rather ambitious ‘Crossing Over’ with an impressive cast but it was eventually rather disappointing. Before all this, Wayne Kramer started his career with ‘The Cooler’, a really obscure movie that I saw in the theater with my wife. Even though I thought that ‘Running Scared’ was quite enjoyable, it didn’t really blow me away, I thought it was rather overrated and I enjoyed much more his directing debut. Indeed, pretty much like ‘Fargo’, it is a movie which dared giving the great William H. Macy a starring part and he was quite awesome in this. This part was just tailor-made for him and he was quite fascinating to behold. Of course, the fact that I have a weak spot for movies dealing with gambling helped as well. In my opinion, it was very well written story with some fully fledged characters and some solid performances also by Alec Baldwin and Maria Bello. To conclude, even though it is a pretty obscure flick, I really enjoyed it and it is definitely worth a look.