Take Back the House

This is what happens when you mess with Justin Timberlake on screen these days: You. Get. Schooled.

Which, I guess, is what happens any time you gun for the guy, for he rocks.

But, yeah, going back to the topic at hand – the Costa Rica-set gambling-world thriller Runner Runner co-starring Ben Affleck as the villain, a woefully underwritten Gemma Arterton as his associate and Timberlake’s love interest, and all of their fabulous tans – that’s basically the gist of what happens. Timberlake schools Affleck.

He schools him good.

And that’s because Timberlake’s at that point in his acting career in which he gets to play The Hero. And while it may still be hard to sometimes get lost in the presence of JT the Actor – being President of Pop is his full-time job and persona, and that charisma absolutely has come in handy for some of his better-received turns, like in The Social Network and Friends with Benefits, but here it is a hindrance (and, ya know, I wouldn’t say that the ending of In Time established him a clear-cut hero).

Yes, you root for the guy in this one, but do you really buy him as a down-on-his-luck wiz-kid Princeton student who falls in with the wrong crowd?

Not quite...because his Richie Furst, with his too-good-for-his-own-good ’tude kinda looks like belongs in this world of high stakes and pool parties and fast cars and beyond-sexy ladies and good ol’ Third World corruption over which Affleck’s snaky Ivan Block presides with white-collar precision and panache, OKRRR. (Ah, but make no mistake, he is a dangerous crook who will feed you to his crocodiles if you cross him – yes, he has crocs! – and Affleck acquits himself rather nicely with the appropriate scenery chewing that is asked of him.)

Richie has arrived at Ivan’s tropical door looking to expose the trick that he believes cheated him out of a large bet on a game of online poker and looking to get a reward. That’s how smart he is, and, I mean, that’s what passes for nuance in Runner Runner. The fact that I think that, for we are painted a bad-boy picture of Richie during the first 15 minutes of the movie, is proof that the writers shoulda spent a little more time baking this one up. Richie is naughty but also the victim. And, eventually, he is the victim but also the hero.

Huh?

Runner Runner would work infinitely better if our sympathies weren’t asked to change on a dime. There’s room for ambiguity in a thriller such as this one, as well there should – is Arterton’s capable Rebecca playing Richie or is she really hoping for a break from Ivan? is the FBI hard-ass-character that Anthony Mackie portrays really that recklessly gung-ho about his case that he essentially goes so off book to get his job done that there is no book anymore? is Costa Rica really that gorge? (Maybe, maybe not. Puerto Rico stood in for Costa Rica during production.)

It all ultimately is handled a little too clumsily for any of it to matter. All bets are off, and it’s just nice to see this trio looking so aglow in one another’s company, even if it means you have stopped caring if anyone gets his just deserts.

Unlucky for Timberlake ’cause he deserves better. He’s earned the right to play a better hero than this one.

My Rating **

Photo: 20th Century Fox.