PM Jekyll & Hyde
CROUPIER is Mike Hodges existential thriller that brought Clive Owen to the screen as Jack, the Dostoyevskian "Double" and gambler Jake. "Jake" is Hodges update on the Post-Modernist Underground Man who thrives as Black Jack dealer in The House of Addiction where the aimless, faithless and hopeless come to barter their souls. Affecting to be an aspiring writer, Owen finds himself drawn into a grime-filled world of low-life, bottom feeder intriques
that become excuses for "living" and lying.
Like Hodges gangster classic, GET CARTER, the film is ultimately depressing. Yet its fascination lies in watching Owen (an anti-hero whose awareness of his self-degradation is both ironic and sickening) yield to the psychological squalor he pretends to dominate as he"abandons all hope" entering a 10th Circle of PM Hell.