The Cooler Movie
Lootz is kryptonite on a stick.
Shelly Kaplow (The Cooler)
That is what the casino boss said about the Cooler of casino luck. It is a wonderful movie, a mixture of feelings and emotions, luck and struggle. The cast, directorship and other aspects of the movie are thoroughly selected.
William H. Macy plays the Cooler (that is how his boss calls him). Actually he is Bernie Lootz, who was a gambler in the past but never succeeded. His boss Shelly Kaplow, played by Alec Baldwin, "healed" him from gambling by breaking a kneecap. Since then Bernie lives and works in Las Vegas in that casino.
This movie is interweaving of many lives stuck in the casino and connected by it too. Bernie is an undisguised loser in everything. How can you succeed in something and still be a loser in everything else? Why is the Cooler? Just because he comes to the table where someone is winning and that person stops winning. It is happening all the time. That is why Shelly keeps him at work.
The Cooler Warms Up
Shelly hires a girl that has to seduce Bernie so that he would leave the casino and the town. And she does her job perfectly well. But who could foresee that he will fall in love with her? She turned him on. She brought him back to life. Oh, yeah, it couldn't be other way, especially if the girl is Maria Bello.
There are other aspects of the gambling world too. The boss Shelly does not want to change and it drives him crazy, as the circumstances and the world are changing and he does not want to. He has no intention to alter his old school casino into a new place.
The only way out was to keep Bernie in house. None could expect that Bernie would be such a nice guy. Apparently it was what Natalie (the seducing girl) needed in her life. And she realizes that.
All the bad luck turns into good luck and now Bernie brings that to the gamers. It is inspiring and so touchy to see how he transforms into a blossoming flower. William H. Macy play is thrilling and he plays more with his eyes and looks than with the words. He expresses everything in only one look, while others need long minutes of the dialogues.
Awards
William H. Macy was nominated for Satellite Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama.
Alec Baldwin was nominated for Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture. He was also nominated for many other awards. National Board of But he won Review Award for Best Supporting Actor, Vancouver Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor and Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Maria Bello was nominated for Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role - Motion Picture but won Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture.
