Love is a funny thing. You cant predict where it will bloom or what havoc it will wreak when it does. Thats at the heart of THE COOLER, another of those quirky parables set in Las Vegas where darkness and light fight it out and the outcome is, well, it depends on your point of view.
Bernie Lootz (William H. Macy) is about to learn all about that. This most unlikely of romantic heroes is a sad sack with luck so back that it actually infects the people around him. Hence his employment at the Golden Shangri-La Casino, where his job is to stand next to people who are winning too much and cool them down. Its not the sort of job you apply for, its the sort of job that finds you, as in being into the casino for 100 large and having no other way to pay it back. Its taken Bernie a long time, but he is now five days away from paying his debt to legalized gambling, much to the chagrin of his boss, Shelly Kaplow (Alec Baldwin), who isnt hip to losing the best cooler in the business.
His luck turns when he gets the chance to play hero to Natalie, the less than flashy cocktail waitress whos caught his eye. As a result, she asks him out for a drink, casts his horoscope by way of small talk, and then throws herself at him with carnal intent. Only for Bernie would this spell the beginning of the end. The happier he is, the less effective he is at cooling hot streaks. When Natalie tells him that she loves him, the casino erupts into an orgy of winning, with money all but dropping into the laps of the happy gamblers. Clearly, this has got to stop.
Shelly has other headaches to deal with, too. The corporation that owns the Golden Shangri-La wants to upgrade from the Rat Pack-retro that make the casino the last of the old breed on the Strip, to the amusement park glitz that attracts the couples with kids. It doesnt take long to realize that Bernie and Natalie arent the only people in this film who have ended up in the remainder bin of life. The Vegas that Shelly knows is gone, as much a relic as the house lounge singer (Paul Sorvino) who can barely hit the high notes between fixes.
As a character study, THE COOLER is first rate. Macy who has made a career of playing losers just smart enough to get into trouble, adds another to the pantheon. He limps along (an old gambling injury), eyes brimming with the pathos of life swallowed whole, and a wary smile that is brave because the despair would be too great to bear. Its also a brave performance, involving nudity and the willingness to appear to be so bad in the sack that when Natalie tries to comfort him by saying that shes had worse, its actually kind of sweet. But its not the portrait of quiet anguish that seals the deal, rather its the glimmer of hope given and taken in the same moment later in the film. Having already hit bottom emotionally, Macy has Bernie react by sitting wordlessly, relentlessly stroking his thatch of hair off his forehead as he tries to make sense of it all. Theres also a quiet sweetness that is irresistible. As his lady love, Maria Bello is also brave, bad lighting picking out all the telltale signs that her first bloom of youth is something of the past, but she invests Natalie with a plucky kind of courage, the kind thats had the wind knocked out of it time and again, but that still has the wherewithal to pick itself up, dust itself off, and keep going.
Baldwin as the ghost of Vegas past brinks his considerable heft to the role, physical and psychic. Theres the cool malevolence beneath the polished veneer, the code of honor that keeps order on The Strip that involves maiming without the injury being anything personal. But he also handles Shellys unexpectedly sentimental side, the one not quite at odds with the brutality, call it tough love, thug style.
THE COOLER veers into the wildly improbable from time to time, but its all in keeping with the way luck strikes, without rhyme or reason. By the end, Bernie is a bona fide hero because he pig-headedly does the right thing oblivious to the doom thats sure to follow. Yeah, its a fairy tale, but one thats straight up with no chaser.
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