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Rating: Sometimes movie titles can be misleading. That's the case with "Il collezionista di carte," the Italian title for "The Card Counter," a film directed by Paul Schrader and produced by Martin Scorsese (they had previously worked together in reversed roles on "Taxi Driver") and presented these days at the Venice Film Festival.
It is indeed so because the protagonist (a certain William Tell, played by Oscar Isaac) has developed the skill of memorizing previously played cards in poker hands (or known as "Texas hold'em") to then win the game (the English word "counter" is indeed more appropriate). It's a skill developed during his incarceration lasting over eight years in the USA, simply because he served in the infamous Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. In that filthy place, he had been used, along with other comrades, as a tormentor of prisoners suspected of even just siding with Islamic terrorists. Obviously, when the sad affair became public knowledge, the scandal and outrage were such as to incriminate the authors of the torture practices (and Tell was among them) but without making those who inspired such insane practices (officers, senior officers, eminent politicians...) pay the price.
Once free, Tell makes a living playing poker in casinos and winning modest sums, yet without drawing too much attention. And who knows how long he would continue his methodical existence (as well as the film itself) if, one fine day, in a conference room of a casino, he didn't encounter an old acquaintance from the Iraqi period, namely former US Army Major John Gordo (played by Willem Dafoe). This very bastard son of a gun, emerging unscathed from the Abu Ghraib scandal, is presenting to a select audience the wonders of his private security company that is achieving significant commercial success. You can imagine how the protagonist might feel and not just him since among those present is a young man named Cirk, whose father had the same type of experience as Tell and once back home, went off the rails and committed suicide.
The meeting between Tell and Cirk is entirely accidental but such as to bind them in a relationship cemented by resentment toward those who have not paid for the crimes committed just because they are covered by political and military authorities. Perhaps the card game at poker can lead to focusing on something other than revenge, but the call of the past will be so strong as to cause deadly and painful consequences for the three characters in surprising ways...
The film has an unexpected progression if one only considers the framework of the gambling story at the casino table. There's much more at stake, and these are issues linked to a past that doesn't pass, as the psychological traumas induced by experiences in the war zone can resurface when you least expect them and drive heavy actions.
Paul Schrader's merit lies in representing a relentless unfolding of events without rushing the action's pace but arriving inevitably at the right final catharsis. William Tell, as was the case for Travis Bickle in "Taxi Driver," is a sort of solitary hero who takes all the time needed to settle old scores. If Bickle was psychologically scarred by the Vietnam War, Tell is a veteran of Iraq and more than eight years in prison, and encountering a scoundrel like Gordo does not lead him to cultivate purely Christian thoughts and actions.
It would indeed be appropriate to comment that "revenge is a dish best served cold," and looking at certain photos taken in Abu Ghraib prison, chills and disgust can arise even in the toughest hearts. Unfortunately, as also emerges from this impact-filled film, there's never a limit to violence not only in certain distant Asian zones (see Afghanistan now returning to the headlines), but also in our Western world that was once secure and is now increasingly unstable.
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