Schrader deals winning hand
‘The Card Counter’ takes bets on soldier’s redemption
Prince of Darkness Paul Schrader (writer of “Taxi Driver,” writerdirector of “First Reformed”) is back with another tale from the abyss. “The Card Counter” features an award-worthy turn by “Star Wars” regular Oscar Isaac in the title role and tells the story of a former soldier and torturer at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, where some members of the U.S. Army and CIA ran amok torturing and abusing Iraqi prisoners. The former soldier calls himself William Tell, presumably after the legendary Swiss folk hero and marksman and it’s probably a private joke. Bill served almost 10 years in Leavenworth and notes that only the lowly, so-called “bad apples” were prosecuted.
Released from prison, he is a self-trained, card-counting blackjack and poker player of great talent. He lives in modest motel rooms, where he wraps the furniture in sheets like some wacko performance artist, presumably to create a clean haven. He likes to work anonymously, making small bets and slowly racking up his wins to avoid notice.
At a convention at a casino, Bill meets Cirk (Tye Sheridan), a young man whose abusive father killed himself after returning from service at Abu Ghraib. Cirk wants to kidnap, torture and kill an officer who is a speaker at the conference and who trained both Bill and his father. His name is Major John Gordo, played by Willem Dafoe, Christ in “The Last Temptation of Christ,” another Martin Scorsese film written by Schrader. Here Dafoe plays the Devil. Bill keeps a journal in which he writes about Gordo, Abu Ghraib and “expiation.”
In “The Card Counter,” the score by Robert Levon Breen and Giancarlo Vulcano moans, and life itself is a particularly personal form of torture. Bill, whose black hair is streaked with gray, takes Cirk under his wing.
Their relationship is paternal. Bill wants Cirk to reunite with his mother, who walked out on her family. Bill also teams up with La Linda (Tiffany Haddish), a well-dressed young woman who manages card players and finds them funding from high rollers.
Suddenly, Bill is playing in the biggest poker games in the country, and he’s doing well. His chief competition is Mr. U.S.A. (Alexander Babera), a Ukrainian who pretends to be American, wears American flag-decorated clothing and whose entourage chants, “U.S.A., U.S.A.” whenever he scores, a truly dark, Slavic form of satiric parody. Bill and La Linda hit it off romantically. He and Cirk also establish a healthy, mutually beneficial bond. The Stygian palette seems to give way to light.
But the darkness has a strong hold on Bill (and the film’s visuals), and we wonder if and when it might pull him in. Flashbacks to Abu Ghraib stir a deep unease. Sitting together, Bill tells Cirk about the place and sounds like he is describing hell itself.
Schrader, who earned a degree in philosophy with a minor in theology from Calvin College, remains haunted by the themes of sin and redemption. Like the tormented souls of the films of Robert Bresson, one of Schrader’s spiritual mentors, Bill is shattered. In the army in Iraq, he did unspeakable things to his fellow human beings. For a time, all he wanted was to do was count cards and be alone with his thoughts, sheets and bottle.
Will his relationships with La Linda and Cirk bring him back from the brink, where he stood transfixed? Is redemption even possible or deserving for someone who has committed such atrocities? “The Card Counter” has an answer.
(“The Card Counter” contains profanity, torture, graphic nudity and a sexually suggestive scene.)