![]() ![]() 'The Gambler' is a personality study, and like 'California Split,' its story does not hang on its ending.' Arthur D. ![]() ![]() We know that the film is a success, because it doesn't really matter whether Axel is a winner or a loser as the film ends. The latter is no mean feat, inasmuch as ruthless movie mobsters are a dime-a-dozen in these post-'Godfather' days. Toback reportedly worked a couple of years putting the screenplay into this shape, which is lifeless.' Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four and said that director Karel Reisz 'is most successful in presenting Axel as a true sickie and his adversaries as genuinely ruthless. We become so absolutely contained by Axel's problems and dangers that they seem like our own.' Vincent Canby of The New York Times was less impressed, writing, 'The movie follows Axel's downward path with such care that you keep thinking there must be some illuminating purpose, but there isn't. Roger Ebert awarded his top grade of four stars and wrote that the film 'begins as a portrait of Axel Freed's personality, develops into the story of his world, and then pays off as a comedy. ![]()
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