Cooler, The

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Look for realism, and you'll find The Cooler disappointing. Look for a far-fetched yarn that's as unpredictable as a throw of the dice, though, and you'll find it engaging fun.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Wayne Kramer's sexy and often humorous feature directorial debut surrounds its sweet center with the energy, flash and risk of the gambling capital. Sterling performances by William H. Macy and Maria Bello as the long-shot lovers and Alec Baldwin as a temperamental casino operator.

The Hollywood Reporter Duane Byrge

A refreshing throwback to another era of moviemaking: This movie was poured from the bottle, not one of those bar regulator machines. It's got the kick, style and flavor of a straight-up story, before movies were watered down with the opinions of marketers, lawyers and committee heads.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Wayne Kramer, who co-wrote the scrappy script with Frank Hannah, makes a potent directing debut and strikes gold with the cast.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

The best thing Baldwin has done in years, and a triumph of low-budget storytelling by a director to watch.

Chicago Tribune Mark Caro

The movie boasts one of those rare twist endings that strikes the right emotional chords, and it deserves credit for laying its bets on a sexy, sympathetic Macy. Sometimes long shots pay off.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

The Cooler is small-scale moviemaking about small-scale lives. But it's big in all the right ways.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The acting is on the money, the writing has substance, the direction knows when to evoke film noir and when (in a trick shot involving loaded dice) to get fancy.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

The highlights of The Cooler -- the portrait of Bernie-as-schlub, the ecstatic union of two losers, the depiction of shadowy old Vegas confronted with its sanitized corporate future -- are superb. You can easily live with the rest to get to them.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

Still, it's difficult to hold his whoppers against him. In creating characters of such spirit and life, and in imagining such a vibrant, imaginative homage to the transformative powers of love, Kramer, more than most, has earned the right to push his luck.

Empire Kim Newman

Macy hasn’t had a role this good since Fargo, and demonstrates again his mastery of the droopy-eyed, apologetically desperate, borderline bitter shrug.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

The heart of The Cooler is in the performances, and in the way Kramer shapes the interplay between the characters with the right amounts of ease and tension.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

Director Wayne Kramer and co-writer Frank Hannah pull off a sleight-of-hand trick here, playing a gritty surface reality against dark Vegas mythology and getting away with it through a combination of shrewd, witty characterization and sure-footed storytelling skills.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

The best part of the film, unsurprisingly, is William H. Macy's low-key portrayal of Bernie.

Premiere Alex Kranz

Driving the plot, Baldwin gives an inexorable, career-marking performance.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

A lot of fun early in the evening, when the Rat Pack ambiance is novel, but gets bleary by 4 a.m. in the story.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Looks brilliant while you're watching it and stands revealed as counterfeit only in the strong light of day. What Baldwin does, though, is the stuff of supporting actor Oscars.

San Francisco Chronicle Carla Meyer

Sly, sexy Las Vegas fable.

USA Today Mike Clark

Grabber sub-plots further boost a story that is basically made by its three leads.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

Hokey and convoluted, but as a sticky-hearted fable of redemption, it's surprisingly seductive.

Dallas Observer Bill Gallo

Even in Las Vegas, which is possibly the most irrational place on earth, drama demands a bit of dramatic logic. Romantic fairy tales just don't play well on The Strip, despite its fake Eiffel Towers, bogus Italian palazzos and strike-it-rich fantasies.

Film Threat Rick Kisonak

For my money, the movie should have given us more of Macy the magical loser and less of Macy the stud muffin.

LA Weekly Scott Foundas

The romance that ensues between Macy and Bello (both of whom are terrific) is exactly the kind of mature, sexy adult relationship that people complain doesn’t exist in movies anymore.

Film Threat Merle Bertrand

Has the intangible and distinctive feel of a movie from a different era. Which just adds to this fine film's mystique, providing yet another reason why The Cooler hits the jackpot.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

Luckily this picture is rescued from cliché by the quality of the acting, and Mr. Kramer wisely gives the actors room to work.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

A blast to watch if for nothing more than the performances. They hit the proverbial jackpot.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

And although The Cooler doesn't do anything fresh with its Vegas milieu, the movie is refreshingly frank and astute when it comes to depicting sex.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

When you realize The Cooler is not a comedy but a dark and violent love story, it's hard to reconcile its premise with its mood. The saving graces are the performances of William H. Macy as Bernie and Maria Bello.

TV Guide Ken Fox

Strong performances -- Baldwin's smoothly vicious Shelley is a revelation -- and Kramer's eye for the striking detail give the familiar material its own distinctive flavor.

The New Yorker David Denby

The crud and petty desperation of The Cooler is enjoyable as atmosphere, and the movie is passionate. [12 January 2004, p. 86]

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Had The Cooler stuck to its dark guns and not turned into a treacly, love-conquers-all fairy tale, this movie might have gone somewhere. In the end, you're only watching this with a sort of mercenary interest in the actors.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Had The Cooler stuck to its dark guns and not turned into a treacly, love-conquers-all fairy tale, this movie might have gone somewhere. In the end, you're only watching this with a sort of mercenary interest in the actors.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

It was also a miscalculation to make the film so sexually explicit. It doesn't particularly serve the story and, for all his gifts, Macy is just not the kind of actor most people want to see in a whirl of sweaty, naked sex.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

What's frustrating is that the movie should be so much better, or at least more entertaining. With Baldwin, Macy and Bello, director Kramer is holding three of a kind.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

It's a comedy, it's a romance, it's a gangster flick. The Cooler is all of that and much, much less. This is a movie without a compass, switching pace and direction as haphazardly as a caffeinated SUV driver on a cellphone.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Lost me early on with its show-offy shooting and editing, portentous metaphysical conceits about winners and losers, and exaggerated displays of evil, violence, and deceit.

Village Voice Mark Holcomb

First-timer Wayne Kramer brings pathos to Bernie and Shelly's fraught relationship, but his film never amounts to more than a cute idea stretched to poker-chip thinness.