They say there are no new stories under the sun, but Mike Hodges has found one within the dispassionate and quite bleak life of a croupier - the man who takes your money at a casino. Clive Owen, quite striking as a blond, although soon reverting to his natural dark hair, gives a steady performance as the wannabe writer who takes a job as a croupier - for which he trained in his native South Africa - to pay the rent. Naturally, the highs of the job soon grip him, and he becomes involved with three women (Alex Kingston, Gina McKee, Kate Hardie). At first abiding by house rules, he eventually succumbs to a scam and takes a £10,000 bribe - although, as you might expect, he finds things are not quite what he imagined. Solid stuff, this; well thought out and with a keen insight into the croupier's garishly lit, microscopic world.