If the key ingredient for film’s success is being made at the right place and at the right time, few films illustrate that point with such clarity like Atlantic City, 1980 Franco-Canadian crime drama directed by Louis Malle. The plot takes place in Atlantic City, resort city in New Jersey that went through massive transformation in late 1970s and early 1980s following legalisation of gambling. Old hotels are being torn down in order to make way for new massive casinos. In one of them works the nominal protagonist Sally Matthews (played by Susan Sarandon), a Canadian immigrant waitress who dreams of becoming first female croupier in Monte Carlo. She lives in dilapidated apartment building next door to Lou Pascal (played by Burt Lancaster), elderly man who likes to think of himself as someone that used to be great gangster in “good old days”. Nowadays he is reduced to running illegal small time lottery for local mobsters and taking care of Grace Pinza (played by Kate Reid), elderly former beauty queen and widow of his slain boss. Sally’s life gets complicated with arrival of his estranged husband Dave (played by Robert Joy) and her sister Chrissie (played by Hollis McLaren) whom Dave made pregnant. Dave came to Atlantic City with general idea to sell bag of cocaine he had stolen from Philadelphia mob. Lou volunteers to help him in this endeavour but Dave gets tracked down and killed by mobsters, leaving cocaine in Lou’s possession. Lou begins to sell it and spends money on expensive clothes and other items worthy of important gangsters, but he also uses money to help Sally, with whom he has fallen in love.
Script by renowned American playwright John Guare doesn’t feature complex nor particularly intriguing plot. The plot instead serves only as narrative frame for the author’s exploration about themes like transience and series of fascinating character studies. All major characters in this film have big dreams and usually very little ability or talent to make them reality. Sally, wonderfully played by Sarandon, is the closest, being the most “normal” and the most determined; her dream of escaping provincial town of Moose Jaw to elite Mediterranean resort is, when the plot starts, in process of being realised, partly thanks to her French boss and card dealership instructor Joseph (played by Michel Piccoli) who tries to teach her French language, opera and other “sophisticated” things. Grace still dreams of being beauty queen and wife of powerful mobster and her apparent inability to move out the bed has more to do with her reluctance to confront realities of age and outside world. Dave (played by young Joy, almost unrecognisable to those familiar with his later and better known role of Dr. Sid Hammerback in CSI: NY) dreams of being smooth streetwise operator, although he can’t think of such banal things like proper transportation and lodging. Chrissie dreams that 1960s were never over and constantly preaches about reincarnation and other New Wave values. Finally, there is Lou as a man who was probably only an insignificant cog in the huge machine of American organised crime, but has, with age, convinced himself that he wasn’t something more. Burt Lancaster plays this character wonderfully, never straying from displaying advanced age and is quite convincing when his character expresses almost boy-like joy when circumstances allow to enjoy little bit of his gangster fantasy.
While making the film Malle has decided to put Atlantic City and its locations to good use. Almost all exteriors feature buildings and surrounding objects being demolished and it corresponds well with general theme of transience. Malle tries to underline the conflict between fantasy and reality by shooting those and other scenes in rather unattractive manner, with cold blue tones in cinematography by Richard Ciupka. The only exception, shot with much warmer colours, can be found in the scenes in which Lou observes Sally apply lemon juice to her body after the work. Film also benefits from the lack of conventional soundtrack (although Malle commissioned one from famous composer Michel Legrand). The latter part of the film is somewhat overlong and slightly confusing, but Atlantic City still represent a very good combination of romantic drama and modern gangster film.
RATING: 7/10 (++)
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