The Card Player

In Rome, the humdrum life of the police is shocked to its roots when the computer belonging to Inspector Anna Mari receives an invitation to a game of online poker. This is no ordinary game with money as the prize as the operator, a card sharp, has a woman tied up and, for every hand he wins, he will amputate something and kill her if he wins the best of five or if the police refuse to play. When the Chief Inspector orders Anna not to play, the woman's throat is slit and her body found washed up. With the authorities now sure it is genuine, they are desperate to find the mysterious killer before he strikes again. The criminal is also a computer genius who is able to bounce his location around the world so the police don't even know which country he is operating in.

Before any progress is made, another invitation appears but the investigation team, led by Anna Mari, a member of the police force, and John Brennan, a disgraced and hard drinking former Detective at the Met, find Remo, a young man who is addicted to poker and is adept at beating the poker game in an arcade and they decide to enlist his help.

Reluctant at first, Remo is persuaded to help out and that, if he does, his record will be cleared of all past misdemeanours and he will be given €2,500 for every hand he wins. Although insistent that his success is due to luck then any in depth knowledge of the game, Remo proves that he can transfer his skills from the arcade to the police station but is understandably put off and disturbed by the screaming image of the bound woman on the screen. Although his first time doesn't go exactly to plan, he is pressured to stay around as he is the best hope against this psychopath whilst the police try to find him. Just in case she should again be called on, Anna begins studying poker so she is prepared for it if there is a next time but, a police woman with a book on poker is always going to be misinterpreted. When the Chief Inspector's daughter is taken, they fear the worst and, when she appears on the next game, the stakes are even higher.

The Card Player is a gripping film, a terrific cat and mouse thriller which, by no means near Argento's best, works and keeps you involved right to the end. The casting isn't great, with Stefania Rocca a little unconvincing as Anna but Liam Cunningham proves his talent and that the unusual casting choice works as his Brennan is the most convincing of the characters.


Dario Argento has built up such a reputation and an oeuvre that films are bound to fall short of the expectations created by his best work, with Deep Red and Suspiria as his masterpieces. Just as not every film that Alfred Hitchcock - the director that Argento is frequently compared to - made lived up to Psycho, Vertigo or North by Northwest, Argento's work rarely comes close to his truly great pictures. It is only fair to judge each film on its own merits and assess what it is, rather than what it isn't and The Card Player works. I liked it and was involved throughout which is all you can really ask for from a film. It will never be studied and analysed like Suspiria, but then few contemporary horror films are. It is a very un-Argento film and, if you didn't no he was the director, you would be pushed to identify it as one of his films.

The Disc

Extra Features

There is a brief Making Of that doesn't really shed much light on how the film came to be, where it was shot and how the effects were done. There are a few brief interviews but these don't tell you much about the creative process.

There is a collection sixteen trailers for Argento films, a promo for The Card Player but, as I've come to expect with Arrow releases, the packaging is superb with a reversible sleeve, poster and booklet with an essay by Argento expert Alan Jones.

The Picture

A crisp and well photographed anamorphic picture in which Argento manages not to get to carried away with Rome, a city he loves, keeping the locations suitably grim and austere. The poker scenes are very well done and he doesn't linger on the torture or murder, something that another director may make the centrepiece of the film.


The Sound

The Dolby Digital 5.1 track is clear and well defined, with the surrounds used sparingly but effectively so when they do come into play, the impact is greater. The Card Player sees Argento once again team up with former Goblin member Claudio Simonetti, whose score is, like the visuals, atypical with a pounding dance track (which I hate) featuring heavily.

Final Thoughts

The Card Player is not the best of Argento and finds the Italian maestro on auto pilot. It doesn't have the energy or verve of his best work and is a pretty generic thriller. The film is perfectly watchable but is really nothing special.