Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

If someone had told me, before I rented Rounders at the local video store, that I'd be holding my breath at the final outcome of a poker game, I'd have told that person that they were nuts.

I mean, really, how many times have we seen this type of movie...underdog plays game against over-matched opponent but wins anyway. The cliche is just too familiar amongst moviegoers that I'm surprised Hollywood hasn't made the "happy ending" a cardinal sin.

But I was indeed surprised by the ending of this film. Not in the way it ended, but in the way that the ending unfolded. It's well worth sitting through even if you're not a fan of the game poker.

This is more than just the story of a game and what it can do to people. Diatribes have been written on end about gambling and it's addiction. But poker, for many, is more than just gambling...it's a mantra.

Take Mike (Matt Damon), a young law student who discovered early on that he had a talent for reading faces at a poker table. He's been a player all his life and never known serious loss...until he faces off against Teddy KGB (John Malkovich, in a truly over-the-top performance, even for him) and loses $30,000...his life savings...and decides to quit the game for good.

Things have been working out well for the last 9 months until his best friend, Worm (Ed Norton), is released from prison. We can tell, right from the get-go, that Worm spells bad news, but of course, Mike isn't going to see it that way. He figures that, since Worm has been spit on all his life, the least he can do is be the guy's friend.

When Mike finds out that Worm has a gambling debt with Teddy KGB, the only thing he can do to save his friend's life is to vouch for him. The bad news about that is that now he's responsible too for paying off the debt.

Of course, the conscienceless Worm won't let it bother him. He figures that, now that the two of them are together again, Mike and Worm can clean up all the cash at all the tables everywhere. What Worm fails to realize is, that while he cheats to win, Mike doesn't have to. Worm reads the cards, but Mike reads the players.

The relationships in this movie are the best part of it. Watching the "rehabilitated" Mike interact with all the friends who've played with or bankrolled him along the way is priceless. We can feel that he WANTS to let his guard down and play a hand or two. Because we know he's good, we want him to. But that's the nature of an addiction and Mike can't allow himself to play.

But for Mike, Poker is NOT an addiction. He proved that once before by walking away once he lost everything. For him, Poker is much more and what he has to come to realize, over the course of the film is just how much a part of him playing poker really is.

When he walks into a room filled with judges, lawyers and law school professors, just before excusing himself, he wows the whole room by telling them all exactly what hands they're holding...and that's without even looking at their cards.

The beauty of watching a performer like Matt Damon in this part is that he's the consummate poker player himself. He has a wide internal range of emotions, but you could never really tell it by watching him on-screen. His characters are generally very withdrawn. You can tell what he's feeling, but not by watching his face. It's all in his inflection. In a poker game, as long as he didn't speak, Damon himself would be deadly.

There are some other great performances here as well. Gretchen Mol gets the nearly cast-away part of Jo, Mike's girlfriend. She's been through the ups and downs with him before and stood with him after he lost everything. Now that he's thinking of playing poker again, she has to decide whether to stand with him again or leave before she gets hurt. Mol is one of those actors who can make us feel her anguish.

John Turturro and Martin Landau also give solid performances here as well. There's some nice background for each of the characters to expand on and they've done their homework. Both of them are noteworthy.

But John Malkovich all but steals the movie as Teddy KGB. His accent is trite, his eyes are manic and his dialogue is wild, but Malkovich brings KGB to a boil that makes us want to watch him explode. In some ways, the role is almost too broadly played for a low-key movie like this one, but in the context of things, it breathes some life into the picture and we can see his delight in creating this character everytime he's on-screen.

A lesser actor would have portrayed KGB like a hoodlum. Malkovich gives him a life of his own. We almost want to see him return to the role again sometime in the future. It would be interesting to see where this character ends up.

Rounders is not an exciting film. There are no car chases, but there are fights. There's no real romance, but there is love. There are no winners, but there are victories.

Guess that justifies my title for this article..."Well-Rounded".

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD