Casino Jack

Casino Jack is a fun-filled vehicle for Kevin Spacey to give himself a joyride impersonating the character (not the features) of convicted super-lobbyist, Jack Abramoff.

The docudrama looks at Jack from many different angles to those used in the two-hour documentary Casino Jack and the United States of Money (noted separately). That's an astonishing portrait of a greedy go-getter exploiting systemic fault-lines in US capitalism. Inevitably for a feature targeting non-arthouse audiences, the factional title character is a more lovable rogue who's depicted as led astray (albeit very easily).

As the documentary's director, Alex Gibney, remarks in one of his DVD's extras, "Kevin Spacey's a great actor, but he ain't Jack Abramoff". That's probably an echo of the famed putdown of VP candidate Dan Quayle, and Gibney's documentary clearly shows that the fictionalised Jack underestimates the man's political shrewdness, radical rightism and charm quotient.

The docudrama was written by Norman Snider, a specialist in TV treatments of scandals (such as Heidi Fleiss) whose only previous major big-screen work was co-writing David Cronenberg's adaptation of Dead Ringers. Snider covers a lot of territory, as did Gibney, but he focuses more attention on the gangland killing of the Greek casino owner whose operations Jack and a close buddy sold to themselves.

Snider also illustrates Jack's Orthodox Jewishness more clearly, from his wearing of the skullcap beneath his comic gangster hat and baseball cap to his creation of an elite kosher diner in Washington DC, from his efforts to fund a Jewish boys school to his demand for kosher food in a police holding cell. Gibney chose to omit such tell-tale details, and the ethnic angle in Jack's life is made clearer too by Snider's depiction of Jack's chosen front man for the casino operation, Jewish childhood pal Adam Kidan. He's seen as an ugly, comic, bumbling slob (SNL veteran Jon Lovitz) whereas the real man shown in interviews by Gibney (and co-operating with him and the FBI) is a smoother rueful character.

Although the producers must have had libel-wary lawyers vetting the screenplay, Snider was able to include a What-If scene in which Jack imagines halting his endless pleas of multi-Amendment Rights to divulge the political donations he'd channeled to each member of the Senate's Indian Rights committee that was investigating his actions, under the chairmanship of John McCain. Jack, a social and political ally of the George W Bush team, had helped to scuttle McCain's 2000 presidential bid, and Gibney makes it clear that the "maverick" senator may have been happy to catch Jack but probably had no idea what damage his committee's findings were going to inflict on the Republican Party.

Snider also includes Jack's family life, but the loyal wife (Kelly Preston) and a clutch of cute kids serve only to highlight Jack's fanatic obsession with public fame and riches (owning deluxe restaurants, getting photographed with the powerful, producing movies, and more). One can guess why Gibney totally ignored the wife (she apparently didn't play a criminal role in his schemes) but his family's welfare was part of Jack's rationale for his cupidity.

Spacey's Abramoff is a bully boy in a political candy store, grabbing cash from unlikely sources (primarily the American Indian tribes' licensed casino operations) to support his lifestyle and political dreams. The real Jack was obviously a brilliant shyster, as was his key ally (Barry Pepper also giving an exaggerated manic style to another astute lobbyist, a macho manipulator who liked to hang around with lifeguards). Their political associates (the GOP Majority Leader who eventually had to resign and a Republican House member who went to jail) aren't played for so many laughs.

Fittingly, the movie was directed by an experienced documentary maker, George (Hearts of Darkness) Hickenlooper. He died, at the age of 47, before the film's release. Jack was due to be released from a half-way house of imprisonment on December 4, 2010 (during Hanukkah, perhaps coincidentally). The movie was scheduled for release a fortnight later.

According to Snider's screenplay, Jack felt unfairly treated by the Washington system and sent an appeal from jail to Bill Clinton, suggesting that the former President's support of a pardon could lead to revelations favourable to the Democrats. Gibney also ignored that intriguing fact, if it's a true one.

The full story of Jack will surely never be allowed to be told; this movie is just a lively footnote for hopeful biographers.