Vol. 2, No.8, August 2005
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Movie Review: High Roller: The Story of Stu Ungar
High Roller: The Story of Stu Ungar Michael Imperioli, Renee Faia, Michael Nouri Pat Morita, Directed by A.W. Vidmer
Stu "The Kid" Ungar was a brilliant card player. So brilliant, he was besting adults at the age of 13. But that brilliance came at a price. His addiction to gambling led the young Ungar to blaze through the poker world like a comet. Ungar was a charismatic character, but you wouldn't know it by this movie.
A three-time winner of the World Series of Poker, Ungar had a major impact on the game. He was the first of the "next generation" of poker champions we see today. But his drug and alcohol addictions doomed him to an early death.
A great premise for a movie, but High Roller: The Story of Stu Ungar lived and died on cable, and rightfully so. The usually reliable Michael Imperioli (The Sopranos) brings little to Ungar's character. His chain-smoking is more annoying than defining and the flat acting by the entire cast makes the viewer wonder what exactly motivates Ungar, his friends and family.
A contrived romance with childhood sweetheart Angela ends with a whimper (In Casino, the romance between Robert DeNiro and Sharon Stone remains the standards for the Las Vegas marital disaster).
Continuity is a constant problem. Pat Morita plays a Las Vegas gambler who gets his clock cleaned by a teenage Stuey in New York, but 25 years later, when he stakes Stuey to his third World Series title, he oddly hasn't aged a day.
When Stuey's father dies, he becomes a protégé of mobster Vincent (Michael Nouri). But again, there is no connection, no passion. When Vincent dies, Ungar gets about as emotional as he does at any time in the movie (which includes several scenes where he betrays his wife and his friends), but even that moment passes quickly.
One of the game's most dynamic, legendary players, this film makes Stu Ungar look like a spoiled brat whose lack of passion causes him to become addicted to almost any vice. A complex man with real demons, the movie does Ungar no justice.
