The Gambler, Losejas (Ignas Jonynas 2013): Latvia, Lithuania.

Reviewed by Cornelia Eriksson at Santa Barbara International Film Festival

One of the first films I saw on the festival was this drama thriller “The Gambler” by Ignas Losejas, also known for Yolki and Sokantis Kirminas. I had not heard much about this film, and after just a few minutes, I understood why.

The movie is about Vincentas (Vytautas Kaniusonis) who is obsessed about gambling and everything that has to do with it. He meets and falls in love with Leva (Oona Mekas), his co worker at the emergency central. She gets affected by his gambling and more and more people gets involved in his odd business. Throughout the movie we get to follow him through a lot of strange events, which gets even stranger with a very different choice of camera angles and non-diegetic music. Obviously the director has chosen to break every possible rule with extreme close-ups everywhere and too long shots once in a while. This is probably the most absurd movie I’ve seen in the film festival so far, and I am not sure if that is a bad or a good thing.
It is interesting and I am impressed that director that he dares to try something entirely different but I am not sure if you understand what he is trying to convey.

We are thrown into a lot of cold environments, which helps to create a depressing feeling. Sound and desaturated scenes also helps.

My two favorite scenes are the ending scene and the scene where Vincentas runs in the forrest. They are both very symmetrical and reflects the directors artistic side. Both are long scenes in which the actors are doing the same things for a very long time. If it wasn’t for the unusual framing and excellent Mise en scéne they would be uninteresting.

During the film it occurred to me that some scenes were affecting me negatively. A few scenes made me sad and for a second made me lose motivation in life. There is a lot of hospital scenes which of course refers to instability, pain and death. The colors they used the most was black, green, grey and blue which helps that “depressing” feeling.

It is a sad film but even sad films need structure.
The story is realistic and well thought out but I believe that whoever edited and sound designed the movie should go home and play in photoshop instead of destroy a movie full of great acting performances.