A poker heist is a fairly unoriginal premise for a feature, but the low-budget Canadian flick Cold Deck is riddled with clichés. Its protagonist is the broody, compulsive gambler Bobby (Stéfano Gallo) whose character arc is simultaneously one of redemption and vengeance. He works a dead-end factory job to pay his sick mother’s medical bills but still dips into her bank account to break even, and his only outlet comes in the form of regular poker games at a club called (ironically enough) Scruples. Shadowy father-figure “Chips” (Paul Sorvino) seems in no hurry to help out and, instead, encourages Bobby to get into the world of high-stakes clandestine games hosted by mob boss types. There’s no need to calculate the odds that Bobby can dig himself out of his financial hole unscathed.
All fairness to Chips, it’s actually Bobby’s perpetually high buddy, Ben (Kerr Hewitt), who suggests the big-time poker game. Its $250K pot sounds like a sweet answer to their woes, and entrance to the game will only cost them 25 grand. One more dip into Bobby’s mother’s account and a stolen car later and Bobby is in, uncomfortably seated at a poker table with the sinister Turk (Robert Knepper, “Prison Break”) and, you guessed it, Chips. Ever the paternal softie, Chips ruthlessly cleans Bobby out only to toss him some scraps afterwards, along with a proposition: hold up Turk’s poker game next month and make off with the entire pot.
As written by Gallo and Jason Lapeyre, Bobby isn’t an idiot, but he is a bit of a pushover. Ben, of course, loves the idea. Bobby’s cocktail waitress girlfriend, Kim (Jessica Sipos), has as dubious a relationship with Chips as Bobby and isn’t much help in the morality department. Blackmail and the promise of mutual assured destruction ultimately win out, with Bobby and Ben teargassing Turk’s and making off with the none-too-conspicuous briefcase fairly easily. But you don’t cast someone like Knepper without a reason. Blunderbuss axe in hand, Turk launches a brutal attack against Bobby, targeting his mother, Kim and Ben. Their final confrontation is a confusing mess, with Turk arbitrarily honing all his vengeance on the real instigator, Chips, and pardoning Bobby simply because he was manipulated.
If Cold Deck‘s final third comes across as underdeveloped, that’s because all the effort seems to have been placed on a strong setup. And by strong I mean free of glaring plot holes and firmly entrenched in poker heist tropes. Zack Bernbaum’s direction doesn’t do much to build suspense from a script that largely writes itself. Betrayals and “revelations” fly by without eliciting much reaction. The whole endeavor is so middle-of-the-road that a latter half attempt to establish a history between Chips and Bobby’s mother strikes the viewer as not only forced but an unnecessary afterthought in a film that has resigned itself to paper-thin characters.
Considering the shell of a thriller they were given, the performances in Cold Deck are surprisingly adequate. Gallo either plays a hardened poker lackey well or just has one of those faces that can pass for suave Canadian gambler. And Knepper and Sorvino are perfectly cast, if all you’re looking for is a capable heist villain. Their roles require very little beyond their menacing screen presence, although Sorvino’s Goodfellas-like mercilessness could have used a bit more malice. The same goes for the entire feature – Cold Deck is an adequate poker thriller that could use a good dose of malice.