The Gambler: Mark Wahlberg plays a character who is healthy and wealthy, but very unwise

MOVIE REVIEW: Risk does not always equal reward — this remake of The Gambler rolls the dice, but any payout will remain in dispute.

The Gambler (MA15+)

Director: Rupert Wyatt (Rise of the Planet of the Apes)

Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Brie Larson, John Goodman, Jessica Lange.

Rating: **1/2

He just can’t stop wishing himself all the bets

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Risk does not always equal reward.

A case in point is this wilfully obtuse remake of the 1974 James Caan-starring drama about a compulsive gambler with a seeming death wish.

In what amounts only to an intermittently intriguing movie experience, a tug of war is going on between the compelling and the confounding.

Exactly which factor will ultimately win is very a matter of personal taste. I’m tipping most interested onlookers will walk away none the wiser about what the hell The Gambler is driving at.

The abrasively self-destructive antihero of the hour is Jim Bennett (Mark Wahlberg), a man who could be described as the epitome of healthy, wealthy and unwise.

Healthy, because he can absorb whatever beatings his creditors choose to serve him as late-payment reminder notices.

After the cash comes a crash for Mark Wahlberg’s frenzied card-shark in The Gambler.

Wealthy, not only because Jim was born into money courtesy of a rich family, but also because he draws down a six-figure annual salary as a college literature professor.

And unwise? While Jim can often play some of the best cards you’ve ever seen, he has one of the worst staking plans on record.

With a guy like Jim Bennett. It is all or nothing, all the time.

And as The Gambler begins in earnest, nothing is the exact amount available in Jim’s bank account. What’s worse, he has been given one week to repay a quarter-million-dollar betting debt.

There is no easy way out for Jim. The three parties to which owes this staggering sum aren’t the type you haggle with.

After laying down his bets, Mark Wahlberg needs a good lay down in The Gamble r.

Not even suicide is an option. “You jump off a bridge,” declares one aggrieved loan shark played by John Goodman, “and you do with the knowledge you are killing your entire bloodline.”

Yikes. By now, you can fairly assume this will not be a feel-good film for the ages. Particularly once Jim decides the only solution is to pump-up his problem and hit the tables even harder.

Remarkably, the intercession of Jim’s emotionally remote, yet clearly concerned mother (Jessica Lange) — who hands him $250,000 in cash well ahead of the seven-day deadline — has no hope of changing this malfunctioning mind.

While Jim obviously has a debilitating addiction that could end his life, The Gambler is always struggling to get you worried about his welfare.

The guy is a bit of a pretentious jerk, actually: so much so that his motivation for making a mess of it all never becomes clear.

Originally published as The Gambler: Mark Wahlberg plays a character who is healthy and wealthy, but very unwise