Independent Films, Film Profiles

The Cooler

The Cooler is a 2003 American drama film directed by Wayne Kramer. The original screenplay was written by Kramer and Frank Hannah. In gambling parlance, a "cooler" is an unlucky individual whose presence at the tables results in a streak of bad luck for the other players.Unlucky Bernie Lootz (William H. Macy) has little going for him - he lives in a dreary efficiency unit in a rundown Las Vegas motel, he's indebted to Shangri-La casino boss Shelly Kaplow (Alec Baldwin), who years earlier cured him of a gambling habit by destroying his kneecap, and he can't recall the last time he had physical contact with a woman. His success as a "cooler" is jeopardized when cocktail waitress Natalie Belisario (Maria Bello) seemingly takes an interest in him, and his luck - and that of those around him - takes a turn for the better. What Bernie doesn't know is that Shelly has paid the woman to seduce him into staying in town. What Shelly doesn't know is that Natalie actually has fallen in love with Bernie - and vice versa. Additional complications arise when Shelly, an old-timer who resents the Disneyfication of Vegas, resists the efforts of new Shangri-La advisers, including Ivy League graduate and condescending upstart Larry Sokolov (Ron Livingston), to update the property and bring it into the 21st century.