Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess) is a math wiz at MIT who was just admitted into Harvard Medical School. Unfortunately for Ben, the entire program would cost him $300,000, a dollar figure that he will never see working part-time at a clothing store. While he is a candidate for a full scholarship, he is told that he really needs to be more dazzling with life stories. Ben, however, leads a fairly routine life.
Enter onto the scene his math professor (Kevin Spacey), who happens to be covertly teaching a group of his finest students how to count cards and run a system to win big in Las Vegas. While reluctant at first, Ben agrees to join the group only long enough to cover the amount of tuition at Harvard Med.
After a couple of weekends in Vegas, the power and excitement quickly take over as Ben is soon the big player in their legal-but-frowned-upon scheme. Forgetting his friends and family back in Boston, Ben also loses site of his original goal of getting out early. It's when he begins to go against the plan that his professor blows up at him, kicking him off the team, and taking away everything that was good in his life. Turns out that his professor is a pretty nasty guy at heart.
There are some good twists in the story that I won't mention here. While the scenes in Vegas are fun to watch, the storyline comes to a screeching halt every time they are back in Boston. Spacey is great as the leader of the pack, playing good/bad very well. Sturgess reminded me of Tobey Maguire/Spider-man on a couple fronts. One, they look alike. And just as Maguire's Peter Parker enjoys the power and popularity when he's Spider-Man, here too does Sturgess' Campbell enjoy his Vegas life to Boston. He likes the power that he gains. Unfortunately, he forgets that "with great power comes great responsibility."
As I left the theater, I came away with a ho-hum feeling. I hadn't thrown away all my money seeing the movie, but I didn't win big with this one either. It was just ok. I give it a B-.
"21" is rated PG-13 with a running time of 123 minutes.
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