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Poker Review

Review by Jon Eaton

After a long delay, High Roller: The Stu Ungar Story is finally seeing domestic release. The film was extremely successful at the major film festivals and has been eyed by poker players for a while, but had yet to pick up distribution throughout the US.

Finally, New Line Cinema picked up the project and has put it on the Starz movie network, with the DVD version hitting shelves on March 15th. I recently had a chance to view the movie, which was a relief since I had been waiting for over a year to see it!

Michael Imperioli, of The Sopranos fame, stars as Stu Ungar. Imperioli transforms himself into Ungar very well. While he is not a spitting-image replacement for Ungar, he pulls of the part perfectly.

The story, which was written, directed and produced by A. W. Vidmer, is accurate enough that I consider it the only true biographical information on Ungar's life available. Vidmer takes us from his childhood days on the streets of New York to Stuey's troubled days in Las Vegas.

Others notably appearing are Vince Van Patten, Pat Morita, and the late Andy Glazer. Renee Faia, with a very limited acting resum', plays Ungar's wife Angela.

The film focuses more on Ungar's life than Poker. If you're sitting down to watch this movie with the mind set that you're going to watch a sequel to Rounders, then you will be disappointed.

However, if you're really interested in seeing a glimpse at the all-too-short life of one of the greatest poker players (and all-around card players) of our time, then this film is a definite hit.

One of the best aspects of High Roller is that it was painstakingly made with the intent to be accurate. I remember reading a Q&A with the filmmaker Vidmer about the process to write the script and it was very involved, even with some notes from his family.

One of the scenes I remember vividly was the final hand of his first World Series victory in 1980. I had to think to myself who he was playing heads up, because the actor they chose to portray Doyle Brunson was far from a Doyle-look-alike. Once I figured that out, I remembered the way the hand went down, and it was perfectly accurate. I appreciated the little details that they really strived to get down.

The lows of this film are few and far between, but there are obvious scenes of somewhat torturous dialogue from the less-experienced actors. The most noticeable are with Stu's childhood actor, and late in the film I had a hard time buying the father-daughter interaction. But with this being Vidmer's first major film and most of these actors not being A-list, there's little to complain about.

This film is extremely turbulent, much like Stu's life. You see Imperioli go from a wide-eyed 20-year-old to a down-and-out Vegas junkie. It's a rough ride at times and really tears at you to see such an amazing individual with the high-level of intellect that Ungar possessed go straight down the drain.

However, that's how it happened, and it's one of the best films about poker or poker players you'll see. I highly recommend this film to anyone with any interest in Stu Ungar's life.