21

Based on a real-life story of five MIT students who learnt how to crack blackjack to rob Las Vegas casinos of millions, 21 works because of Sturgess. He brings freshness and honesty to his role of a shy student desperately needing money to make it to Harvard Medical School, who gets sucked into the “business” till he doesn’t know how to get out.

Kevin Spacey as their maths professor who leads the gang is his dubious best, but he really doesn’t get the chance to kick into a higher gear. Bosworth is just eye candy.

What drags the story that’s remarkable enough — enough apparently to get Strugess’s Ben Campbell into Harvard — down is the pace. There’s little drama outside of the casinos, and in there, we are not really supposed to know how they do it.

Since the how is so far off, a little why could have helped. However, we get no idea about anyone’s life except Jim’s Harvard problem. Simple logic tells us the other four, equally brilliant students must have had a really good reason, or a really good life to need no reason at all, to put their careers in jeopardy.

Simple logic also tells us the five maths geniuses would have weighed the pros against the cons. It’s unfortunate director Luketic doesn’t.