I like it for the first 80 minutes... unfortunately the ending is really weak!
Argento has never been a filmmaker known for tying up loose ends, but the last 10 minutes of The Card Player are almost insulting. For me, it completely ruins what is otherwise a serviceable, modern-day police procedural.
No reasons, no motivation, no plausibility; and he totally cut off Stefania Rocca's final moment by running the credits over it, almost as if it's not even important (it's not a set-piece, so who cares, right?). The whole thing just feels rushed; it feels as if a more interesting or ambitious climax proved unsuccessful and the filmmakers had to fall back on a 'plan b'.
On the positive side, Rocca and Cunningham both deliver credible performances and do at least have some believable chemistry (even if their relationship is horribly undeveloped, as relationships in Argento's work often are), the atmosphere of the film is very good, benefiting from the slick cinematography of BenoƮt Debie, which seems to be channelling the spirit of Michael Mann with those amber-lit streets and cool blue interiors, and the scene where Remo chases the girl through the labyrinthine backstreets of Rome is one of the most tense and exciting cat and mouse sequences of Argento's career.
So yeah, I do like the film... but that terrible ending ruins it slightly. It's definitely better than the abysmal Phantom of the Opera and the almost as-bad Mother of Tears, but nowhere near the same level as The Stendhal Syndrome or Sleepless.
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