seymourblack-1 "Atlantic City" features some interesting characters whose paths cross at a time in the city's history when it's undergoing radical change and many of the decaying old edifices are being demolished to make way for modern casinos. This movie is both an unconventional love story and a crime drama but it's also a story about past disappointments and dreams of a better future.Sally Matthews (Susan Sarandon) is an ambitious young woman who left her drab life in Canada to look for something better in Atlantic City. She works at a local oyster bar but is also learning French and training to be a blackjack dealer as she dreams of someday working in a casino in Monte Carlo. At the end of her working day, she returns to the run down apartment block where she lives and routinely cuts lemons and rubs the juice into her upper body to eliminate the smell of fish.Lou Pascal (Burt Lancaster) is an elderly numbers runner who lives in a neighbouring apartment and regularly watches Sally's nightly ritual. In the past, he used to work for some notorious gangsters who he greatly admired but these days he takes care of the bedridden Grace Pinza (Kate Reid) who's his old boss' widow. She lives in the same building and habitually insults and humiliates him because she knows he depends on the money she pays him.Sally's past life is brought back into sharp focus when her ex-husband Dave (Robert Joy) unexpectedly turns up with her pregnant sister Chrissie (Hollis McLaren) who's the current woman in his life. Sally is angry that they've followed her to her new home but even more serious problems follow as Dave has stolen a substantial quantity of cocaine from some mobsters in Philadelphia and they're on his tail. Dave gets to know Lou and uses him to help to sell the dope.When the Philadephia mob catch up with Dave and kill him, Lou is left with the cocaine and a significant amount of money. This transforms his life as he suddenly has the means to buy a new suit and hat and be generous to Sally as they begin a relationship. Suddenly this impoverished, lonely old man who's nostalgic for the good old days and tells people exaggerated stories about his exploits and importance in the criminal world, finds himself financially well off. Even better, however, when Sally's threatened by the gangsters who think that she must have their stolen cocaine, he steps in and protects her and this makes him feel incredibly proud and exhilarated.Neither Sally nor Lou genuinely expect their offbeat relationship to be forever but it does, nevertheless, have a very positive effect on both their lives."Atlantic City" is well written and skilfully balances the poignancy of its story with some moments of humour and a very unexpected ending. Its greatest quality, however, is its ability to convey so powerfully, the plight of its two main characters who are both regretful about the disappointments of their pasts and preoccupied by dreams of a better future. Their circumstances are portrayed with great sensitivity and warmth and placing them in an environment that is also undergoing a period of transformation is extremely effective.Burt Lancaster is equally as convincing in portraying Lou's pathetic nostalgia for his fictionalised past as he is at conveying his immense pride and excitement when he successfully protects Sally. His performance and that of Susan Saradon are top class and contribute massively to the success of this wonderful movie.

Jackson Booth-Millard I spotted this film listed in the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die book, it was an easy title to remember when it was available to me, so with the two leads I noticed I was certainly going to watch it. Basically elderly long time Atlantic City, New Jersey resident and small time gangster Lou Pascal (BAFTA winning, and Oscar and Golden Globe nominated Burt Lancaster) used to think he was something big in the city. Trying to pick himself up in whatever way he can he one day meets up with Sally Matthews (Oscar nominated Susan Sarandon) who is trying to become a casino croupier and realise her dream to go to Monte Carlo. Wanting to get a better life in the gambling business, this is sidetracked by the return of her drug dealing husband who has stolen drugs from the Mafia, and he tries to sell the drugs to Lou, this is partly how they get to know each other also. So Lou and Sally are eventually together in the same room, and seemingly on the run from whoever wants the drugs or money, and obviously the do threaten if they don't get them back. Also starring Michel Piccoli as Joseph, Hollis McLaren as Chrissie, Robert Joy as Dave Matthews, Kate Reid as Grace Pinza, Moses Znaimer as Felix, Al Waxman as Alfie, Beetle Juice's Robert Goulet as Singer, Angus MacInnes as Vinnie, Sean Sullivan as Buddy, Toy Story's Wallace Shawn as Waiter and Elias Koteas as Extra. I will confess that I did not fully understand all of the story, but I enjoyed the characters played by Lancaster and Sarandon, and of course their interaction, and the moments of chasing or whatever, so for that it is a most watchable crime drama. It was nominated the Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director for Louis Malle and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen, it won the BAFTA for Best Direction, and it was nominated for Best Film and Best Screenplay, and it was nominated the Golden Globe for Best Director and Best Foreign Film. Very good!

Michael Neumann The New Jersey resort of the film's title is very much the main character in this colorful, original drama, set in a community looking toward the future but living in the past. Against a vivid backdrop of decaying splendor and shallow glamour the film gathers together several odd, unrelated characters in an unpredictable series of stories involving an aging petty gangster, an aspiring young casino croupier, two hippies on the run with a stolen roll of cocaine, and sundry other killers, dreamers, and fortune hunters. For lack of a better tag, and because both city and script are built around the magnetic lure of easy money, the film might be called a crime story, but the richness of John Guare's screenplay, filled as it is with broken dreams and rose colored memories (says a nostalgic Bert Lancaster, "You should've seen the Atlantic Ocean back then…") can't be pigeon-holed so lightly.

HelloTexas11 'Atlantic City' draws its two main characters so well, and they are so well acted by Burt Lancaster and Susan Sarandon, that it is only at the end that we feel let down for caring about two people who frankly don't deserve it. There are points in this finely directed and well-written film where we think something wonderful (or tragic) will happen to them, that they've gotten a lucky break which will enable them to break free from their shallow dreams (or perhaps go down in flames), but in the end, they go right on living like they did before, albeit with a little more money. I daresay everyone on the planet has known someone like Sarandon's Sally, a young woman struggling to make it who's already been through a bad marriage and hard times and is trying to start over. She's pretty but not gorgeous, energetic; she's also foolish, a little crazy, and emotionally unstable to a degree. Sally is training to be a casino dealer, a career she almost blindly hopes will solve all her problems and maybe even allow her to live in France. She approaches the training with all the fervor of someone who's been talked into a pyramid scheme. But just below the almost manic surface, one can tell she is bound to burn out on the idea sooner or later. She never gets the chance though. Burt Lancaster is Lou Pascal, a former mobster (so he says) who hasn't been outside of Atlantic City in twenty-seven years, even though there is nothing for him there anymore, if in fact there ever really was. He is reduced to taking fifty-cent bets from people, mostly tenement dwellers in the poor black community. His companion of sorts is Grace, a woman about his age who, like him, lives in a past that frankly doesn't sound like it's much worth reliving. He waits on her, gets her groceries and does other errands for no particularly good reason other than he's been doing it so long, it's become a habit. They argue a lot but seem to feel genuine affection for each other. Atlantic City itself is shown in the early days of the casino boom, where there are two kinds of people: those like Sally who are going to work in the casinos, and those like Lou and Grace who are being pushed aside to make room for the glitzy gambling dens. The old run-down hotels are being torn down. Lou lives in a shabby room in one of them, as does Sally next door, though they don't know each at first. Lou finds himself unexpectedly making big money dealing cocaine (inadvertently courtesy of Sally's ex-husband) and begins playing the high-roller he always wanted to be, and pretends that he once was. But he really does have a heart, and he tries to help and 'protect' Sally. As a quirky slice-of-life, 'Atlantic City' hits almost all the right notes. But as a satisfying drama/character study, it leaves us hanging with an 'is that all there is?' kind of feeling. The thing about the ending isn't that it's such a huge downer, but that it is neither here nor there. We half-expect Lou to die trying to help Sally, or Sally to come to the realization she's been used and that learning French really isn't the answer. Instead, Sally steals most of the drug money from Lou and takes off down the road, none the wiser as far as can be told. And Lou goes back to Grace; the last shot is of them walking down the boardwalk, apparently content to be back where they started. It's more depressing than a genuinely depressing ending.