Casino Jack (George Hickenlooper, 2010)

Kevin Spacey has compliantly become the go-to man for playing conniving gits in the milieu of Capitol Hill, and so you pretty much know what to expect when he presents himself as the real-life lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who pushed his remit beyond the bounds of what even the decidedly twisted Washington set-up could put up with. Years of fiddling the system under the banner of representing the interests of minority groups led finally to jail sentences for him and his closest cohorts, and the film deals with this in a matter-of-fact way, but having Spacey, the winking political anti-hero even before his turn in House of Cards, as the sloganeering and movie-quoting focus and a caperish slant to the whole affair don't do the seriousness of the message any favours. It serves as overly familiar and passable entertainment, when really the subject matter cried out for a polemic.

5/10