THE GAMBLER directed by Rupert Wyatt, written by William Monahan from the screenplay by James Toback, with Mark Wahlberg, Brie Larson, Michael Kenneth Williams and John Goodman. A Paramount Pictures release. 112 minutes. Opens December 25.
After a series of modest projects in his native England, Rupert Wyatt broke out by relaunching a long-dormant franchise in 2011’s Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes. His new movie, The Gambler, is also a riff on a 70s property – but this one trades sci-fi and CGI for a deep dive into the psychology of an academic with a gambling addiction.
In Toronto for a press day at the Trump Hotel, Wyatt clarifies that, like his Apes movie, The Gambler is not a straight remake.
“If I’d been emulating something in a very narrative sense, I would never have done this,” he says, explaining that Mark Wahlberg’s version of the lead is very different from the character played by James Caan in Karel Reisz’s 1974 original. Where Caan was helpless in the grip of addiction, Wahlberg is driven by a compulsion to risk everything, over and over again, that starts to look an awful lot like a death wish.
“He just realizes that the only way out is essentially to go all in,” Wyatt says. “He’s totally invested in this idea. ‘If I stay in this life, I’m going to be miserable – so the only way I can get rid of my life is to blow it all up. And to do that, I’ve gotta risk my [actual] life.’ I think that’s really quite an aspirational story, in a funny sort of way. It’s not Leaving Las Vegas, nor is it Rocky. It’s not a guy who’s trying to end up a winner it’s about a guy who’s trying to end up with a big fat zero.”
The trick is in making audiences want to stay with that guy as he walks away from his well-appointed, comfortable world and into some very dark places.
“I never set out to make him a likeable character,” Wyatt says. “Mark certainly didn’t. But as long as he’s interesting – as long as you’re curious to see what happens – then we’re okay.”
It’s the other side of Wyatt’s antihero that proves the harder sell. The guy’s supposed to be an academic, discussing literary theory with college students – and Wahlberg, well, he’s not necessarily the first person who comes to mind.
“You don’t have to step on the moon to play Neil Armstrong,” Wyatt laughs. “It’s all about the understanding of what that character’s going through, and how you play that out. I think our way into that type of character was not to play the academic, the guy with elbow patches on a tweed jacket. We played him as an outsider, as a rock star. All the students want to come witness his lectures. And that’s not different from Mark as a movie star, really.”
Interview Clips
Wyatt on casting The Wire’s Michael Kenneth Williams as an oddly sympathetic heavy.
Wyatt on the importance of Brie Larson as Wahlberg’s love interest.
normw@nowtoronto.com | @normwilner
