Lapse in the Pool

Have you ever taken a not-really-a-recommendation from someone? A co-worker loaned me a DVD of the movie Poolhall Junkies. He warned me in advance (though not exactly in these words) that it wasn't really that good. But we'd recently had a discussion about how completely awesome Christopher Walken is, whether the movie is actually good or not...

(by the way, I am not going to watch Balls of Fury to test that notion)

...so he figured I might want to give it a shot. It's a short little hour-and-a-half movie, so I figured, what the hell?

It turned out not to be a terrible movie, but a long, long way from a good one. Really, this movie wants to be Rounders when it grows up. Many critics compared it to The Hustler or The Color of Money instead, but the point is there's nothing here that hasn't been done better in an earlier movie.

You've got a meandering hero who hasn't come to terms with his true life destiny.

The highly strung girlfriend who doesn't understand him and stands in his way.

The screw-up friend (brother in this case) whose care-free life style gets the hero into trouble.

The unlikely mentor from another walk of life who steers the hero onto the right track.

The skillful nemesis teased at the beginning of the film, whom the hero must defeat at the end of the film.

It's a soup made with all the ingredients of Rounders, but it just doesn't taste as good. I might have been willing to chalk some of that up to the fact I have a personal enthusiasm for poker that I don't have for pool, but I don't think that factors into it much. I actually saw Rounders in the theater when it was new, before I really discovered poker, and I found it excellent even then.

No, the key difference is that Rounders really hits the message perfectly: you have to be who you are. It might be a long journey with many obstacles to figure out who that is, but you'll never be happy unless you take it.

Poolhall Junkies never stays on this message (or any other) for long. It's a framework to get from one trick pool shot to the next. You never believe the main character's sense of self-doubt, never feel he's suffering much to get where he has to go, and doesn't really have to overcome much to triumph in the end. On every level -- writing, acting, directing (note that the guy playing the main character did all three) -- it plays like high school drama.

But you do get a few decent scenes here and there, mostly involving a circle of the main character's friends. (Though even they sometimes feel lifted from Good Will Hunting, yet another fairly recent "journey of self" movie.) And, as promised, Christopher Walken does rock in the movie. (Plus it's not as painful to watch as, say, The Rundown, if you're looking for a Walken fix.)

Still, like my co-worker, I must give it a non-recommendation. And not the kind where I'm suggesting you should watch it anyway. I'd rate it a C-.