MovieChat Forums > Rounders (1998) Discussion > Does anybody else think this movie has a...

Does anybody else think this movie has a tragic ending? *spoilers*


So spoilers throughout (you are warned):

So Mike is at least halfway through law school and most likely in the middle of his 4th semester when Worm gets out of prison and the events that follow (Mike said that grinding got him through "half of law school" and that doesn't even count the time he spends driving Kanish's truck).

Thus, Mike is around 1 year away from graduating from school. Unless he is an unbelievable card player, he probably has taken out at least some school loans since a legal education costs $150,000 these days (albeit this was back in 1998) and winning all of the 75 k it would take to get through half of law school is sort of doubtful.

This means he possibly owed money in loans, was at maximum a little over a year from graduation, and he threw it all away so he could go play poker in Vegas. Even though me, my friends, and everyone I've talked to see the ending as a "happy ending", I'm starting to change my mind and believe it's downright depressing. Furthermore, the first year of law school is supposed to be the hardest and he has already gotten through that.

You would think he should at just tough it out for one more year to graduate and go play cards then (he could always just take the bar later if he changed his mind). I'm not positive, but I don't think you can just leave law school for a couple of years and come back and start where you left off (like you could do in undergrad).

Anyways, I think it's kinda said he chose to become a poker player/ gambler/ semanticslol when he had so much going for him.

reply

Poker was Mikes calling, its made clear in the movie the law isnt.

-He doesnt seem interested in doing assignments, group studies, even the mock trial He's late, disorganized, not prepared, etc

-He was very interested in the judges game, going as far as to calling out what everyone had

-He was good at cards in general, he may or may not have been interested in the law. Maybe he was at first but realized it wasnt for him.


IMO the tragedy of the movie is Mike getting back into poker because of Worm. The crooked Worm got Mike on his path, where as Jos path was more straight, but Mike wanted little to do with it. That make sense?

reply

Its def a happy ending. He ends up doing something he enjoys doing unlike Law which he clearly wasn't interested in. Worm showing up was probably a good thing. Think of the alternative, he ends up being pussy-whipped by Jo for the rest of his life. I know what I would prefer...

reply

Think of the alternative, he ends up being pussy-whipped by Jo for the rest of his life. I know what I would prefer...
Spoken like a true poker degenerate!

That's a compliment, by the way...

reply

Worm got Mike rounding again... Mike will thank him someday for that.

reply

I thought the ending was refreshing. Usually in gambling movies like this, the lead learns his lesson and goes "straight" by the end of the film. In this movie Mike follows his gift and ignores what is expected of him to live his dream.

Why is becoming a lawyer a better life goal? I think its been proven that for a select few profession poker can be a very lucrative and steady lifestyle. The movie made it clear that Mike had that type of talent, and it was what he loved. He could have been a good lawyer, but he would probably had become miserable always wondering if he had what it took to live his life dream.



We are the children of children, and we do as we are told - "Joe vs. The Volcano"

reply

It is very hard to find an OLDER person who has had a good, long, healthy life that included gambling, professional or otherwise.

Many of the top pro poker players you saw on TV over the past many years, some raking in millions....went on go bust, and some got in trouble, legal and otherwise.

reply

Its a sad ending in a way that his gambling addiction won
Its a happy ending in a way that he beat Teddy

reply

He was bound to have a *beep* life with Jo anyways. He was exactly in the kind of a situation where in the future he would be frustrated, depressed and look back as to what could have been if had he chosen poker over living the life Jo created for him. Atleast this way even if he fails he can be happy that he took a shot at his calling. He wasn't interested in law and his relationship with Jo had no spark...most of the time they came off as couples who have been married for years and now resent their decisions. I wouldn't be wanna be stuck with that for sure....I would rather take a chance with something that I'm really good at.

reply

Agreed. You even got the feeling that he only got into law because it's probably what Jo pushed him into. She got him into doing something he really wasn't interested in while at the same time stopping him from doing what he truly loved.

My only problem with the ending is Mike trusting that b!tch with 10g's to give back to Petrovsky. That'd knock a nice chunk out of her student loans.

reply

If you liked this film, you'll REALLY like "Straight TIme," with Dustin Hoffman and Theresa Russell.

reply

Unless he is an unbelievable card player, he probably has taken out at least some school loans since a legal education costs $150,000 these days (albeit this was back in 1998) and winning all of the 75 k it would take to get through half of law school is sort of doubtful.


The film clearly states, in a voiceover from Mike near the beginning, that he had financed law school through being a rounder. There is never any mention of any loans.

reply

2 roadz diverged in a wood, and I took da 1 less traveled by, and dat has made all da diff.

Werd 2 ur mudda, bruddafcker

reply

No, he ended up where he belonged. Jo was too narrow minded to "get" the game.

reply

I know this is an old imdb thread, but you must have missed the conversation, which is the entire message of the movie and the whole point of the thing:

Michael, May I tell you a story?

Please.

For generations, men of my family have been rabbis. In Israel, before that in Europe. It was to be my calling. I was quite a prodigy. The pride of my yeshiva. The elders said I had a thirty-year-old's understanding of the midrash by the time I was twelve. But by the time I was thirteen I knew I could never be a rabbi.

Why not?

Because for all I understood of the Talmud, I never saw God there.

You couldn't lie to yourself?

I tried. Tried like crazy. I mean, people were counting on me.

But yours is a respectable profession.

Not to my family. My parents were destroyed, devastated by my decision. My father sent me away to New York to live with distant cousins. Eventually, l... I found my place, my life's work.

What then?

I immersed myself fully, I studied the minutiae, I learned everything I could about the law. I mean, I felt deeply inside that it was what I was born to do.

And did your parents get over it?

No. I always hoped that I would find some way to change their minds, but they were inconsolable. My father never spoke to me again.

If you had to do it all over again, would you make the same choices?

What choice? The last thing I took away from the yeshiva is this. We can't run from who we are. Our destiny chooses us.

Later in the movie:
This is temporary? Will you be back next semester?

Oh, I think we both know I'm no lawyer.

I hope my story didn't discourage you.

No. It inspired me. I think I was on my way out anyway.

reply

This right here is the core of the story. It may seem like a bad life decision to us, but to him he is a poker player and decided to chase what he loved in life and stopped listening to what everyone else tells him is the "right choice".

reply

Thank you. It seemed to me to be the actual core message of the whole thing. I'm glad to see you agree.

reply

Jo and Mike had zero chemistry and they look like siblings.

Mike's heart is in winning poker, straight and clean which is even above how he learned on the street with his degenerate buddy Worm who proved to be bad luck in the end. Mike's decision to pursue legit poker matches is where his heart is set, and with Worm gone, and Jo not around to distract him with unnecessary regret he could probably reach celebrity poker levels and even end up teaching the game on the West Coast.

reply

Worm is the dirty side of gambling and if Mike thinks he can get around or avoid that, he's an idiot. It's too easy to cheat in cards. Whatever Mike wins, he'll wind up getting taken by another Worm-like character.

reply

Why would Mike "get taken" by another Worm-like character? Care to explain the logic? He's obviously smart enough to learn from his mistakes and he breaks off from Worm in this movie, so why would he regress and find another Worm at all?

reply