Rooted in magical realism, the film depicts an underground trade in luck, where fortune flows from those who have less to those who have more; the premise purports that luck can be amassed and transferred as any other commodity. The story follows several participants as they engage in literal games of chance, each one more risky than the last, to eliminate the unlucky.
Plot
A concentration camp survivor named Samuel "Sam" Berg (Max von Sydow), a supernaturally lucky man, runs a Europeancasino. One of his workers is Federico (Eusebio Poncela), a man who "steals" other people's luck merely by laying a hand on them (a similar concept is used in the 2003 Las Vegas comedy-drama The Cooler).
When Sam has a falling out with Federico and takes away his powers, Federico sets out to find the luckiest man alive, Tomás (Leonardo Sbaraglia), the lone survivor of a plane crash, in order to use his powers to overpower Sam in the one game he has never lost: Russian roulette.
Federico takes his partner through a series of tests in order to confirm his abilities. In the process, they approach the tightening circle of underground chance games that will eventually lead them both, and a female cop on their heels, to a final showdown with Sam.
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 73% of 71 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.5/10. The website's consensus reads: "The plot gimmick is original, bolstered by stylishly intriguing setpieces."[2]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 59 out of 100, based on 25 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[3]
