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The Cooler

The Cooler

Romance · Drama · 2003

Bernie works at a Las Vegas casino, where he uses his innate ability to bring about misfortune in those around him to jinx gamblers into losing. His imposing boss, Shelly Kaplow, is happy with the arrangement. But Bernie finds unexpected happiness when he begins dating attractive waitress Natalie Belisario.

Movie details

The Cooler

“When your life depends on losing... the last thing you need is lady luck.”

2003 Romance · Drama 1h 41m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

6.9 / 10

36.5K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

78 %

Tomatometer

Metacritic

69 / 100

Metascore

TMDB

6.7 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

Bernie works at a Las Vegas casino, where he uses his innate ability to bring about misfortune in those around him to jinx gamblers into losing. His imposing boss, Shelly Kaplow, is happy with the arrangement. But Bernie finds unexpected happiness when he begins dating attractive waitress Natalie Belisario.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over The Cooler?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Romance · 1993

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Intimacy

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Winged Creatures

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Drama · 1998

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Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Wayne Kramer

Written by

Frank Hannah · Wayne Kramer

William H. Macy

William H. Macy

Bernie Lootz

Alec Baldwin

Alec Baldwin

Shelly Kaplow

Maria Bello

Maria Bello

Natalie Belisario

Shawn Hatosy

Shawn Hatosy

Mikey

Ron Livingston

Ron Livingston

Larry Sokolov

Paul Sorvino

Paul Sorvino

Buddy Stafford

Estella Warren

Estella Warren

Charlene

Court is in session

Put The Cooler on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Sentimental Softie

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Cool Ironist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.