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Final Wager
USA 2024
produced by Scott Hamm Duenas, Kipp Tribble, Kenny Yates, Brad Kerr (executive), Bobby Patel (executive) for Toni Nycole Productions, MRP Entertainment, KAYJ Entertainment
directed by Kenny Yates
starring Scott Hamm Duenas, Fernanda Romero, Jennifer Daley, Trevor Penick, Michael Madsen, Gwendolyn Fuller Mukes, Tom Arnold, Cevin Middleton, Julian Fletcher, Constance Parng, Marysia Irena, Kipp Tribble, Eric Charles Jorgenson, Matt Washington, Patrick Tompkins
written by Jerry Artukovich, music by Wesley Hughes
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Half a year ago, Chance (Scott Hamm Duenas) has quit gambling, and he
has sworn it would be for good, also because his girlfriend, lovely sports
bar owner Lisa (Fernanda Romero) has threatened to leave him otherwise.
But then, just before Christmas, Chance receives news that his foster
mother (Gwendolun Fuller Mukes) is to be evicted from her nursing home if
she's unable to pay her outstanding bills, coming up to no less than
$64,000, money that she doesn't have, that Chance doesn't have, but that
the nursing home director (Tom Arnold) needs on the quick. Now for Chance,
there's only one way to get money on the quick, even if his gamblers
anonymous counsilor Wilt (Michael Madsen) advises against it and
suggestsfor him to add up all the losses he has made over the years
gambling as a sort of deterrent. Chance does just that, and stumbles
across a curious fact, in his nine years of gambling he has never ever
lost a single bet on Christmas Day, and conveniently Christmas Day's
tomorrow. So the next day, Chance starts betting on sports games in the
morning, and soon enough finds himself on a winning streak, one that due
to certain limits on the betting app, just isn't moving quick enough to
make all the money before tonight, so he tries to talk things over with
his bookie's agent Ty (Trevor Penick) while hiding the fact he's betting
again from Lisa, while spending of all places the whole day in her bar.
But then, when Chance has almost reached his goal, Ty pulls a fast one on
him, and suddenly he's in high debt with his as of yet faceless bookie -
who turns out to be the very person whom he would have at least expected
it to be ... Now the idea of making gambling the central piece
of a Christmas miracle feels instinctively wrong (at least to a
non-gambler like myself), but that said, Final Wager has turned out
to be a rather sweet film, one that's a blend of romantic comedy and
comedy of deceit and errors, and that works due to a well structured
script and well fleshed out characters, and tieing most of the film down
to mainly one location actually works for the film rather than against it.
And a very competent cast bringing their characters across in a relatable
way only helps making this a rather enjoyable watch.
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