Mark Wahlberg is Addicted to Risk in The Gambler Trailer

Posted on October 27, 2014

Mark Wahlberg stars in the trailer for The Gambler a drama based on the 1974 film of the same name. In the original version of the film, James Caan played a professor who had a terrible gambling problem and how that affects his life.

In this new version Wahlberg plays Jim Bennett, an English professor with an eye for one of his students (Brie Larson). He also loves to gamble. Bennett gets in over his head and his life begins to unravel. He borrows money from a gangster (Michael Kenneth Williams). The money must be repaid. His mother (Jessica Lange) is really sick of hearing about the trouble he's in.

Bennett sets out to solve his problem by creating new problems. He meets a vicious loan shark (John Goodman) who will loan him the money to help him get out of trouble, but failure to repay that loan will result in dire consequences. In this trailer there is a gripping conversation between Goodman's loan shark and Wahlberg's compulsive gambler. Goodman lays out his philosophy about gambling, success and what it takes to be beholden to no one. Goodman is really amazing in this scene. We certainly wouldn't want to owe him money.

Wahlberg dropped sixty pounds for the role. Bennett isn't the type to lift weights at the gym, that's for sure. Can this new role get him that Oscar he's been denied in the past? The film was written by William Monahan (The Departed, Kingdom of Heaven) and was directed by Rupert Wyatt (Rise of the Planet of the Apes). The film will be released on December 19, 2014. Take a look:

MARK WAHLBERG