The Card Player (2004)

March 2015:With a poll coming up on IMDbs classic Film board for the best titles of 2004,I decided to watch auteur film maker Dario Argento's 2004 Giallo.Despite having recently gotten a brand new DVD player,the machine kept jamming up 20 minutes into the flick,which eventually led to me giving up on Dario's poker,and instead watching Eros Puglielli's tense 2004 Giallo Eyes of Crystals.July 2015:Since having recently picked up an cheap back-up DVD player, (which came with no remote,and only has a play/pause button!)I felt that it was the perfect time to go back to the table,to finally play a round with the card player.The plot:Arriving at the police station,officer Anna Mari receives an E-Mail containing a photo of a kidnapped girl,with a message from the kidnapper saying that he wants the police to play a game.As the cops try to make sense of what is taking place,an internet poker screen pops up,with the kidnapped victim being shown on the side in a web cam.Offering the victims freedom if the cops can win a 5 round game of poker,Mari is ordered by the Commissioner not to take part in this bluff,which leads to the stranger brutally killing the kidnapped victim.Fearing that a serial killer is on the loose,Mari begins to closely work with a sacked British police officer called John Brennan in building a profile of the killer,who is continuing to haunt the police by winning the deadly rounds of poker.Staying away from the table since her dad killed himself over his gambling debt,Mari decides that she must now take a seat at the table,in order to get the killer winning hand.View on the film:Originally planned as a sequel to The Stendhal Syndrome, (which got stopped when Asia Argento decided to leave Italy for Hollywood)the screenplay by co-writer/(along with Jay Benedict/Phoebe Scholfield & Franco Ferrini) directing auteur Dario Argento got dealt a number of bad hands which led to the ending being changed 3 times,and the cast largely improvising the dialogue.Despite everything being stacked against it,the writers are still able to deliver a gripping Giallo,with the dial-up internet (aww..the bad old days!) poker games create a tense atmosphere,as each turn of the cards switches the advantage between Mari & the killer.Whilst the more improvise nature sadly leads to the clues to the identity of the murderer mostly feeling like a last minute addition,the writers deliver aces high set pieces which strike an excellent techno-Giallo mood,which goes from the main clue allowing Argento to return to the theme of people being connected to nature,to a delightfully bonkers Silent movie-style railroad track final.Interestingly keeping lush colours solely shown in the garden of the killers secret location,Argento & cinematographer Benoît Debie attack the Giallo with a brittle Film Noir hue,by completely draining any colours and covering the title in a decaying grunge of greys and browns,which perfectly expresses the bleak disconnection that the cops have to the on-screen victims.Contrasting the tar-pit look of the movie,Argento slides across the poker table with rapid tracking shots kept in to the beat of Claudio Simonetti's electronic score,which along with allowing Argento to show ever corner of the burnt out city,also allows Dario to deliver ever twist in the cards with a real precision,as Mari tries to find the killers royal flush.

I'm a big fan of Dario Argento's work; his early works are true works of perfection and have seen most of his stuff and mostly his work do strikes many of emotions such as thrills, tension and brilliant over the top death scenes. But after during the late 90's to present most of his stuff have been hit and miss, and this one from reading the reviews have been classed as a miss. But In my opinion I actually rather enjoyed this effort from him, sure it doesn't have almost none of his trademark technique's. But on its own it does stand as an okay murder mystery.Firstly the plot is a very interesting and intriguing one, we get the old serial killer playing cat and mouse with the police routine, and in this case we get a killer setting up an online poker game with the police force, while using an innocent woman as bait and if they lose, she dies. This does make for a very interesting story line and it does keep the viewer interested in seeing what happens, and I did feel for these victims in that situation, but the fact that nothing is shown, doesn't leave a lasting impression, as nothing is shown afterwards and kind of makes the outcome disappointing.Plus it lacks the stunning visuals that Argento's normally provides, instead the look and feel of the movie, looks very standard, and more towards the mainstream side of things. But the two leads are very decent, Stefania Rocca as Anna was a very strong leading character, she does keep you interested and has a good presence on screen even with the bad dialogue, and Liam Cunningham makes for another good character as her partner John and even their forcibly written romantic subplot, they makes it believable and they do share great chemistry together, along with the both of them fighting their demons does anchor the story along at a nice pace. Also Slivio Muccino was another good addition as the computer wiz kid, he was just brilliant. But the other side characters were just forgettable and were just poorly written.But some of the other aspects of this movie doesn't really work, like the whodunit mystery in which this movie very much relies on, wasn't really inventive or shocking, and the final climax was just very predictable and just plodded along, and even the motive or lack of and honestly had a hard time remembering who he was at the end and just seemed lacking and lazy, but the overacting at the end was rather fun.All in all "The Card Player" is an okay serial killer mystery flick, but for fans of Dario's visual style, you will be sorely disappointed, as this just doesn't take any risks at all and feels just rather safe and plodding.

You can see this having some potential with a premise of " Psychological thriller where a serial killer plays mind games with cops on the internet involving card games " . It's a relatively idea to pitch and the internet and home computers were really taking off round about the time this film was produced . I do remember being connected to the net in March 2001 and coming across " The Official Gary Glitter website " and finding something called a guestbook that seemed to contain threats of violence and other mayhem quite often by people with extreme right wing affiliations . In amongst fits of laughter that made me resemble someone having an epileptic fit I decided to send my own kind regards to Glitter and hoped he and all his fans received a good slap in the face with a stanley knife . I then found a link on the website celled " Contact the webmaster " and thinking a " webmaster " might be a sort of internet police thing controlling what is put up on the interweb I then wrote off to them saying something along the lines that Glitter was a convicted paedo and needed executing while the Glitter website needed closed down instantly . It might sound ridiculous now but I thought that's what a webmaster was . I was shocked to discover a couple of hours later that the website was still going and that the guestbook now contained my name and email address along with a message along the lines of " Hey lay off Gary you Nazi freaks . Gary's the best and you know it " that was accredited to me " I also noticed there was a few messages in my email inbox from people I'd no knowledge of and gave up reading them after the first couple were less than complimentary to put it mildly . I then had to undergo the indignity of going on to a Neo-Nazi website and posting an open letter on the forum saying I didn't write that message on the GG website and could people stop sending me death threats . To be fair I did get a nice email from one of them saying he never made any threats to me and he thought I was a good guy because I wanted Gary Glitter to be tortured to death . I couldn't agree more I'm obviously digressing a little bit but THE CARD PLAYER plays hard and fast where the internet is concerned . Someone is using several servers and that's why the cops can't get a trace ? Yeah sure it is . I'm sure if they bothered they could trace he source very easily but I guess because it's a film where some suspension of disbelief is needed . Unfortunately some entertainment is needed also and we really don't get much . Being an Argento film you're expecting a bit more in the way of horror stakes and we don't get them and nor do we get much in the way of thriller element . It's very talkative and that's maybe the problem . Irish actor Liam Cunningham ( Somewhat surprisingly cast ) is god enough in his role but that's probably because he's using his own voice where as I'm fairly certain the Italians are speaking in their own language and they've been re-dubbed in post production . This means we're unrealistic or inappropriate inflexion every time they open their mouths and when you've got a film that revolves around people talking , talking and talking the film has to work on both the dialogue and the way the cast deliver it and in that way alone THE CARD PLAYER is something of a failure

It isn't difficult to see why The Card Player is one of the least generally regarded Argento works. Largely free of gore or fluid camera- work, a stylistically restrained affair that could almost pass for made for television. And yet it works by and large, it may not be a classic but it's a lot of fun, with a playful feel that rather charms. The intent on the surface was to merge two rather different traditions, the giallo and the modern day serial killer procedural film, but a casual glance at the two reveals their incompatibility. The giallo founded in twist and contrivance, exuberant sleight of hand the magic behind lurid pulp fun, the later serial killer film a matter of darkness and psychology, the horror of death and trudge towards truth, stone faces and realism. The Card Player stuffs the former in the latter and the fit is tight, but rather than strain for neatness and appearance Argento pushes for knowing absurdity. So there's some of the more open weirdness and humour of his work, lively and eccentric characters and a few visual gags. But as well as absurdity, in the set up can be seen a film-maker reacting to his legacy. In films past Argento gave beauty to violence in the impossibly wandering eye of his camera and we delighted in him for it, but here he recognises the audience and doesn't give them what they want, moreover it is a camera (and just just his but that within the film) that denies, a single stationary webcam that shows terror and death but no arterial business. The treatment is imperfect, elegant but insubstantial, touching on the matters of death, fate and audience (the defining image being the reflection of a gambler's face in computer screen that shows both terrified victim and the card game for her life) but unable or unwilling to give them much weight. The effort is appreciable though and the film in general is a charmer. Liam Cunningham comically inspired, tough and touching as a boozy agent transferred to Rome, Stefania Rocca hitting the right hard but tender notes in her stock heroine character (complete with predictable personal problems), Silvio Muccino an amusing card sharp and other players doing their work well. A few well crafted sequences of nervy tension too, as well as a couple of impressive lunacy. Certainly a number of places in need of more sting, and a killer and motivation rather disappointing, but overall a well worthy work of underrated fun. 7/10.