questions/comments

1. I think this is first to demonstrate that Federico is infallibly lucky, and fairly high up on the chain of "lucky people" before he zaps the luck from the casino punter. Secondly to show that the money itself is immaterial to him; he has no need to collect the money as he can pick up money any time with his gift of luck.

2. I don't remember this part in the film.

3. Ditto. I'll look over it again.

4. She was shot accidentally by a cop on cover who was cleaning his gun. Simultaneously, someone was betting on her photo and lost. This is the essence on the gambling over 'hostages'. If you gamble on a hostage's photo, and you lose, the hostage is the victim of this loss, not oneself (as far as I understand).

5. I think it is blood.

6. Yes, I agree.

7. I saw this in a slightly different way. Federico has a hunch that someone out there is luckier than "The Jew". In some rebellious sprit to his adopted father, he goes on a mission to hunt that person down, and in the process goes about scouting individuals (eg the person who got run over on the highway).

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1. At the beginning Federico hits the jackpot in passing, and did not even pick up the money. This was either just corny, or it served to show that the "luck" that is passed around as commodity in the movie works in simple tangible things and not in the general run of things (eg. he can win the game by luck, but his luck does not guarantee that he will benefit from what he won) (i think it was just corny).

Since this is right at the start of the film, I think it is just done to establish the premise. If anyone watched this movie without knowing anything about it they would be pretty lost without a clear scene like that to show them what was going on.

2. The calculation of 1/237.000.000 as Tomas' chances of survival seemed rather fallacious.

Yup, the number is pretty meanlingless. Let's just say he was very, very lucky.

3. There was a scene when Monica Lopez and her cop pal both smelled a cup of coffee (I think) and then he poured the coffee from one cup into the other. WTF??

Fredrico got Tomas out by drugging the guards' coffee. Here Monica is presumably collecting a sample as evidence.

4. I didn't really get how/why Tomas' girlfriend was shot.

It was a 'freak' accident. At this point her photograph is with the Jew and the accident is a (pretty severe) symptom of her lost luck. This the reason why Tomas feels he has to face the Jew and st the end burns her photo - otherwise she is condemned to tragic (and very short) life.

5. What was the black substance the guy scratched of the wall in the beginning of the movie? I thought it should be blood, but it doesn't look like blood.

It is blood, liekly from previous rounds of Russian roulette.

6. I think luck stands for power in this movie, and one theme is people's greed for it. Also, luck/power is usually gained at the expense of others.

There's definately that element to it. That's what the games are all about.

7. In a lot of ways the movie is about father-son relationships (note the end note: a mi padre). Frederico wants to succeed on his own, he could easily wait to have the casino (which he helped prosper) handed down to him, but he wants to become what he will become struggling against his "father", not filling the void when his "father" dies.

I think Fredrico's reason to try and 'play' against his father at the start probably had a lot to do with your previous point - he wants to prove that he has the most power. The whole gaming underworld was based on a desire to show that you have the 'best' gift - had Fredrico never played the Jew he would never have known if he truly was number 1, an honour which was more important to the gamblers than the prize they earned. I think his quest to find someone to beat the Jew was fueled purely by bitterness about what the Jew had done to him.

Curiouser and Curiouser.....
~Jim

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1. It is just to show that he was not playing for the money - just to show he was too lucky to be playing for the money.

2. They assumed that a plane crash was 1 in a million and being saved out of 237 passengers was 237 times as less probable. However, the probability here is best left uncalculated. Planes fly at a very high altitude and a crash almost always results in everyone dying - impact, fuel ignition, etc. So, the chances of being saved in a plane crash are really, really minuscule.

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