Rounders

There’s a moment late in ”Rounders,” John Dahl’s enjoyably hokey poker flick, that seems to be the movie’s climax, then unexpectedly turns out not to be. It finds young, desperate gambler Mike McDermott (Matt Damon, once again playing the smartest guy in the room) sitting across the table from arrogant Russian mobster Teddy KGB (John Malkovich, leaning on his Boris Badenov accent as if it were a car horn). This is the showdown the movie has been building toward, and it appears to culminate when Mike spots KGB’s “tell” — an unconscious habit that inadvertently announces the strength of his hand. And what does our hero do with this valuable information? He immediately lets KGB know that he knows, only to be called “Meester Sonuvabeetch” for his trouble.

Why let the cat out of the bag? “Usually,” Mike says in voice-over, “I’d’ve let him go on…till he was dead broke. But I don’t have that kinda time.” Come again? Too rushed to capitalize on an opponent’s weakness? Narrators aren’t always reliable, and Mike’s motives are more complex than he lets on: He’s another in a recent spate of film competitors more concerned with integrity than with coming out ahead. Sure, they want to win — but on their own strict terms.

”Rounders” may be a traditionally upbeat tale of obstacles overcome, but it’s guided by a winning-isn’t-every-thing mentality. The movie takes great pains to contrast Mike with his conniving, unscrupulous pal Worm (the astonishingly chameleonic Edward Norton), who’s constantly dealing from the bottom of the deck. Had ”Rounders” been made 35 years ago, it would have been Worm’s story, and there’s little doubt that he would have gouged Teddy KGB as soon as he detected his tell (or, more likely, somehow failed in the attempt). Instead, we have talented-but-scrupulous Mike, who opts to level the playing field. In the ’90s, Russian-inflected assertions aside, your average leading man simply isn’t allowed to be a sonuvabeetch.