Still, the two characters are convincingly in thrall to the excitement of gambling, and the film makes that addiction palpable. The “bond” between Mike and Worm is, by now, a rather flimsy convention.
If the story sounds familiar, it is–it’s yet another Mean Streets Lite. Worm is in debt to a local mobster, and keeps getting into more debt the only one who can save him is Mike, the straight shooter who’d never let a buddy down. Mike, after one too many hustles, loses his girlfriend, played by newcomer Gretchen Mol (who’s like a lacquered Renée Zellweger with an even littler-girl voice), and he hooks up with his old pal Worm (Edward Norton), a sleazy, scruffed-out hellion who has just gotten out of the slammer.
Directed by John Dahl ( The Last Seduction), from a script by David Levien and Brian Koppelman, Rounders doesn’t have much of a plot.
