Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
Bernie works at a Las Vegas casino, where he uses his innate ability to bring about misfortune in those around him to jinx gamblers into losing. His imposing boss, Shelly Kaplow, is happy with the arrangement. But Bernie finds unexpected happiness when he begins dating attractive waitress Natalie Belisario.
The Cooler is elevated primarily by its performances — William H. Macy's quietly heartbreaking Bernie and Alec Baldwin's ferocious, Oscar-nominated Shelly are genuinely exceptional, anchoring a film that could have been mere quirky Vegas fare. The premise of a human jinx is imaginatively conceived and gives the film a distinctive magic-realist edge, but the screenplay leans on familiar redemption-through-love beats that soften its novelty. Cinematography is competent Las Vegas neon-and-shadow work without particularly distinctive vision. The ending feels tonally uneven and somewhat contrived, undercutting the earned emotional weight of what came before — it tries to split the difference between dark realism and fairy tale and satisfies neither fully.