A so-so dramedy on super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
On Tuesday The Washington Post ran a short update on Jack Abramoff, who’s out of federal prison and on probation for the next three years. The article reported that he was leaving his workplace of the past six months, Tov Pizza in Baltimore. I remember my shock months ago upon first learning he’d taken a minimum wage job, but based on the man’s now toxic reputation and his unsavoriness as represented in the late George Hickenlooper’s CASINO JACK, I realize I shouldn’t be surprised.
CASINO JACK stars Kevin Spacey as the man at the heart of 21stcentury America’s most resonant political scandal. He’s everyone’s favorite K Street boogeyman, “super lobbyist” Jack Abramoff. Jack cons his way into amassing an empire composed of restaurants, casinos, and his own private Hebrew “academy” (complete with ice hockey rink and Zamboni machine) - and that’s just for starters. To score this loot, he and business partner Michael Scanlon (Barry Pepper) engage in endless, illicit quid pro quo deals with Indian tribe-run casinos and other special interests. They then curry favor with crooked politicians willing to pass legislation for those parties’ incoming cash. Former House majority leader and self-described “Hammer” Tom DeLay (recently found guilty for conspiracy and money laundering and awaiting sentencing) and Ohio congressman Bob Ney (who served seventeen months in prison) are among those influential figures implicated in the corruption. Abramoff and Scanlon’s ripples of high-end bribes become more and more reckless until a sleazy former mattress salesman they have connections with (Jon Lovitz) enlists his mob ties to commit murder, and the dominoes begin to fall for everyone. And the once high-powered Jack Abramoff quickly descends into worldwide infamy.
The movie succeeds at stringing together these disparate elements - including Abramoff’s increasingly wacky sequence of crimes - into a comprehensive narrative. However, the film fails to introduce much new material to this ripped-from-the-headlines story. Its failure to do so brings to mind such similarly missed cinematic opportunities as this year’s FAIR GAME (on the Valerie Plame scandal) and WALL STREET: MONEY NEVER SLEEPS (which partly touched upon Big Business’s complicity in the recent economic meltdown).
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