***SPOILERS*** After surviving a shooting at their local diner the survivors of that massacre have their lives shattered beyond repair. We get to see the movie in a number of flashbacks or fragments in exactly what happened during the shooting and how the shooting effected the lives of those who survived it as well as their loved one's and family members. We soon see that the sweet and pretty waitress at the diner single mom Carla Davenport, Kate Beckinsale, turned into a man chasing bimbo who by neglecting her six month old son whom she took along with her, in her car, to sleazy bars and pick-up joints almost ended up dying from dehydration!
Dr. Bruce Lamby, Guy Pearce, who dropped into the diner to get a cup of coffee before work at the hospital and left before the shooting started held himself responsible for the massacre in him opening the door for the killer, Marty McGuire, who moments later shot up the place! Dr. Lamby also turned out to be Clara's doctor who was attending her baby's eating problems for free, since she didn't have any medical insurance, and almost blotched it up with problems he had back at home. In with his wife Joan, Embath Davidtz, who's suffering from migraine headaches that Dr. Lamby started to slip strong medication into her food in order to cure her. This with him upping the doges almost ended up killing her instead!
There's also teenagers Anne Hagen & Jimmy Jasperson, Dakota Fanning & Josh Hutcherson, who by a stroke of luck or heroism survived the killings where Jimmy's dad Bob Jasperson, Jackie Earl Haley, ended up together with the gunman, who shot himself, getting his brains blown out! It was Jimmy who completely freaked out and became mute in what he saw in not only his dad getting shot but in the cowardly way he reacted to it! Anne for her part became very religious after the incident and forgave the dead gunman for what he did but at the same time covered up the cowardly way how Jimmy's dad reacted before he was blown away! This more then anything else made Jimmy's depression worse then it already was. And it was Anne in her finally admitting the truth of what happened that brought Jimmy out of his deep depression as well as him getting his voice back.
Finally there's the real hero in the movie the sad sack compulsive gambler and cancer ridden driving school instructor Charlie Archenault, Forrest Whitiker. It's Charlie who felt by surviving the shooting, where he was wounded, that luck was on his side! Driving down to a Las Vages casino Charlie's luck proved to be genuine with him winning on the crap tables a cool 100 G's before the evening was over.
***SPOILERS*** But in the end Charlie blew it all and had to get a marker, 25 G's, from the mob to continue in trying to get his money back only, so it seemed, to lose it all and having his right hand and arm broken for his failed efforts. We later find out that Charlie in fact did make a big score big enough to pay off his debt to the mob and have plenty left for himself! But,in him feeling guilty in surviving the massacre, he decide to willingly have his arm hand broken instead!
Great performances by all involved but it's Forrest Whitaker's kind and sensitive portrayal of born loser Charlie Archenault that really stands out. It was Charlie who was the true hero in the movie by trying to tackle the gunman and getting shot for doing it. But he prevented him from gunning down more people including Anne & Jimmy as well as Kate in his selfless and almost suicidal effort! And in the end despite doing everything he could to destroy himself, in him feeling that he's dying from cancer anyway, it was an act of faith or God that somehow miraculously prevented that from happening to him!
Dr. Bruce Lamby, Guy Pearce, who dropped into the diner to get a cup of coffee before work at the hospital and left before the shooting started held himself responsible for the massacre in him opening the door for the killer, Marty McGuire, who moments later shot up the place! Dr. Lamby also turned out to be Clara's doctor who was attending her baby's eating problems for free, since she didn't have any medical insurance, and almost blotched it up with problems he had back at home. In with his wife Joan, Embath Davidtz, who's suffering from migraine headaches that Dr. Lamby started to slip strong medication into her food in order to cure her. This with him upping the doges almost ended up killing her instead!
There's also teenagers Anne Hagen & Jimmy Jasperson, Dakota Fanning & Josh Hutcherson, who by a stroke of luck or heroism survived the killings where Jimmy's dad Bob Jasperson, Jackie Earl Haley, ended up together with the gunman, who shot himself, getting his brains blown out! It was Jimmy who completely freaked out and became mute in what he saw in not only his dad getting shot but in the cowardly way he reacted to it! Anne for her part became very religious after the incident and forgave the dead gunman for what he did but at the same time covered up the cowardly way how Jimmy's dad reacted before he was blown away! This more then anything else made Jimmy's depression worse then it already was. And it was Anne in her finally admitting the truth of what happened that brought Jimmy out of his deep depression as well as him getting his voice back.
Finally there's the real hero in the movie the sad sack compulsive gambler and cancer ridden driving school instructor Charlie Archenault, Forrest Whitiker. It's Charlie who felt by surviving the shooting, where he was wounded, that luck was on his side! Driving down to a Las Vages casino Charlie's luck proved to be genuine with him winning on the crap tables a cool 100 G's before the evening was over.
***SPOILERS*** But in the end Charlie blew it all and had to get a marker, 25 G's, from the mob to continue in trying to get his money back only, so it seemed, to lose it all and having his right hand and arm broken for his failed efforts. We later find out that Charlie in fact did make a big score big enough to pay off his debt to the mob and have plenty left for himself! But,in him feeling guilty in surviving the massacre, he decide to willingly have his arm hand broken instead!
Great performances by all involved but it's Forrest Whitaker's kind and sensitive portrayal of born loser Charlie Archenault that really stands out. It was Charlie who was the true hero in the movie by trying to tackle the gunman and getting shot for doing it. But he prevented him from gunning down more people including Anne & Jimmy as well as Kate in his selfless and almost suicidal effort! And in the end despite doing everything he could to destroy himself, in him feeling that he's dying from cancer anyway, it was an act of faith or God that somehow miraculously prevented that from happening to him!