Take a gamble on '21'

Watching "21" is as guilty a pleasure as sitting down at a blackjack table. You know what you're seeing doesn't make a lot of sense, and that things could turn from exhilarating to awful at any moment, but the thrills keep you in your seat.

A rickety drama plagued with plot holes big enough to shove a pile of chips through, the film hits you with just enough Vegas glitz and high-wire suspense to keep your eyes on the screen.

Like "Rounders," "21" follows a brilliant college student who applies his wits to the gambling racket, only to be swept up by the same emotions and addiction that overtake simpler minds.

Ben, played by Tobey Maguire clone Jim Sturgess, is a shy MIT student in dire need of $300,000 to pay for tuition and living expenses at Harvard Medical School. His professor (Kevin Spacey), who secretly funds and runs a card-counting blackjack team, recruits him to the squad.

It's tough to turn down high-roller suites, brick-thick wads of cash and the adoring eye of his comely teammate, Jill (Kate Bosworth), who is referred to as "the hottest girl in school" more often than an MTV News segment on Michael Jackson drops the phrase "King of Pop."

The story is based on the Ben Mezrich book "Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions." The teammates, who practice card counting for hours and head off to Vegas on weekends and holidays, wear disguises and use hand gestures and code words to tell one another whether tables are hot or cold. They meet up at strip clubs afterward to divvy up the winnings and plot their next moves. Brainy egos clash and stress builds because casino managers are hot on the team's trail.

A side story has a thuggish casino loss-prevention consultant, Cole (Laurence Fishburne), catch onto the scheme and hunt down the players, dragging them into backrooms for some bare-knuckle interrogation.

The narrative glosses over the team's strategy and dances around several real-world issues of its application. Blackjack tables on the Strip are always crowded on weekends and holidays, and it's considered bad form to butt in during the middle of a shoe, especially at high-limit tables. Worse, the student-blackjackletes aren't very bright. Even after the players are busted once, they stick with the same hand signals.

The drama synthesizes the ebb and flow of a gambling session, with sensational highs followed by despair-inducing lows. You'll have fun at "21" but will walk out of the theater a little bit lighter in the pocket, wondering where the time went.

3 stars out of 4

Rated: PG-13 for some violence, and sexual content including partial nudity.

Director: Robert Luketic.

Family call: Fine for teens and up.

Running time: 123 minutes.

(Phil Villarreal is the author of the novel "Stormin' Mormon" (Publish America, $19.95). Contact him at pvillarreal(at)azstarnet.com)

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)