London in Film - Part 4: Croupier

Croupier (1998)

Although planting ones self in front of a roulette wheel in a London casino might seem like a step too far for many hard up Londoners, it is a reality for our cash strapped protagonist in Mike Hodges' Croupier. Known to many as the film which may or may not have launched the career of Clive Owen, Croupier tells the story of novelist Jack, who in order to make ends meet whilst breaking through his writers block, takes a job as a croupier in an underground London casino. It is when the casino begins to unearth some of Jack's artistic creativity however, that his obsession with the gaming table leads him to blur the real world with the fictional world.

Jack swiftly begins to lead a double life, as both casino employee and fictional character of his next novel 'I, Croupier'. The script explores both the mundanity and decadence of modern London, and its ability to leave its citizens feeling helpless, ostracized and bemused with the noise and stress of everyday life. It also illustrates the lengths that a writer will go to excerise their imagination and immerse themselves in a character. Sometimes it is only to further a plot, and at the expense of real and meaninful interaction. When Jack meets casino regular Jani (Alex Kingston) and is asked to take part in an inside robbery, his fictional character is offered a chance to thrive, whilst the ethics of the real croupier are all but forgotten.


Croupier is certainly a nice bookend for veteran director Mike Hodges, who directed Michael Caine in Brit classic Get Carter at the early stages of his career back in 1971. The script rasies interesting questions over the mindset of a novelist, and certainly approaches the themes of solitude and disconnection in an original form. Some would no doubt argue that the screenplay is not overly concerned with the practice of writing at all. It may indeed be more synonomous with the pressures of living in a city like London, working long unsociable hours and rarely seeing the ones you love, whilst trying to make some extra money to get by. The spartan and utilitarian feel of the surroundings take away from the warmth that London often attains in romantic comedies, the city feels cold, unfriendly and sinister, and shows us something far more unsettling than plain old writers block.