In this film, gambler Jake Green appears to be going through a life-changing experience when he enters a game with potentially fatal consequences. One day, Jake is caught between a pistol and a very difficult place where he finds himself protected by a ruthless loan shark and they offer him an offer that must be accepted before it is too late.
The plot isn't intellectually challenging as much as it is confusing, and yet the big twist is completely telegraphed. Ritchie has created a movie that is patronizingly obvious one minute and impenetrable the next.
Revolver taps into a struggle everyone faces that only a small few have been able to relate to. It's not that this film isn't a mess, but that mountain of a mess is on top of a shiny gem of a film that is worthy of being admired.
It's an irritating, repetitive and pretentious psycho-metaphysical con-job that's ultimately about transcending the ego, and it owes a significant debt to the 1960s The Prisoner TV show -- but isn't nearly in the same artistic league.
