‘Poker Face’: This deck did not make a good trick

It’s been eight years since Russell Crowe made the transition to directing period drama ‘The Waterbender’, in which the New Zealand-born Australian actor has shown that he is dealing with stories with a certain sense of the epic, as well as intimate. Rather than continue that trend as a director, the Oscar winner for ‘Gladiator’ took a breakthrough with his second film as a director, ‘Poker Face’thriller with which the artist met several friends and acquaintances.

This is a strong bet from Crowe himself, since, in addition to directing and starring in the film, he produces it and wrote the screenplay, which is based on another written by Stephen M. Coates. Despite the fact that the actor of “The Dilemma” and “A Beautiful Mind” he seems to have a good card game with his particular game of pokerin which he reunites old childhood friends in his luxurious mansion after becoming a billionaire, what it ends up producing is an incredible feeling of bewilderment.

His staging is fast, its elegant and luxurious setting, the presentation of the protagonists seems a bit rushed. However, a priori, the mystery is interesting, attention-grabbing and could very well be a game like ‘Perfect Strangers’, which switches mobile for poker and turns it into a game worthy of ‘Casino Royale’ or has become a black comedy worthy of the recently released ‘The menu’. Hand, Crowe bluffs, pretending to have an ace up his sleeve.

Russell Crowe cheats in solitaire

And the truth is that that trump card never comes. One could even say that Crowe himself believes he has it, when what he has shown is that he is a bad player. And is that “Poker Face” seems to want to be too many things. On the one hand, it tries to be a heist film, a crime thriller; on the other, a reunion of old friends with the typical dramatic touch of people who meet to deal with unfinished business; in the centre, a melodrama on the last wishes of a man who, since he has little left, enters an existential crisis.

These are elements to which Crowe gives an imposter bombast, which also shines through in his performance. In addition, its large cast, in which Elsa Pataky stands out as the dealer of the game, hardly shines. The only mention for the Spanish actress, whose role is closer to that of a referee, offering a different approach to lifelong friends. But this is not enough to raise a tape that she tries to cover too much and which, in the end, she chooses to throw out clichés, leaving a terrible feeling of tedium. It also doesn’t help that the rest of the cast just go off on autopilot.

Hard to believe he is the same director of ‘El maestro del agua’. While it wasn’t a splendid film, it was far more dignified than this proposition. It cannot be that what was supposed to be an elegant thriller ends up turning into a presumptuous film that disappoints in everything it sets out to do. As mentioned above, this game is often a bluff.

Note: 4

The best: Elsa Pataky, the Spanish actress once again demonstrates her power of presence.

Worse: The feeling that the plot has nowhere to go and goes completely haywire.