Uh-oh, Louis Malle at the helm again. I calculated about a 50% chance of liking his work. On the plus side, it guaranteed Susan Sarandon in her hotter years and Burt Lancaster in his, well, later years. Also, funnily enough, Wallace Shawn as a waiter.
Sally (Sarandon), a waitress training as a casino dealer, seems to have her life sufficiently together until her wayward husband, the serendipitously named Dave Matthews (Robert Joy), unexpectedly shows up. He doesn't tell her that he stole dope from a Philadelphia mob, but he gets some help in selling it from her neighbor and secret admirer, minor thief Lou (Lancaster). When trouble catches up with Dave and then comes to Sally's door, Lou finds himself caught between his usual self-serving outlook and a desire to help her, if only out of lust.
The caricatures are probably the strongest thing about this movie. Sally is relatively normal, despite an opening scene in which she bathes her top in lemon juice while listening to opera at the window, where she rightly suspects that someone is watching. Lou injudiciously brags about his bigger crimes, including some he never committed. Dave looks like the total bum he is, and from the "chemistry" between him and Sally, I'd sooner think they were siblings. Dave also brings home a pregnant young...paramour?...who espouses some wacky New Age ideas (doesn't believe in gravity!) but is otherwise one of the most charming characters in a town that appears to be 80% criminal. Lou's legit job is to take care of a gangster's widow who constantly gets impatient with him (often with good reason), but they sometimes slip into a sort of romance, even when Lou has a chance with Sally.
If you're looking for excitement, as you may well have surmised, there are thugs going after the protagonists for either the drugs or the money procured from them. I especially like a chase scene under unusual conditions. However, there isn't enough action to call it an action flick.
If you're looking for a nice love story, keep looking. I don't think that any two characters really love each other, if they even know what that means. The ending is ostensibly happy but, like in Murmur of the Heart, rather unresolved, leading one to wonder what values Malle means to espouse.
That 50% chance I estimated above? It still stands, and I'd like to extend it: You have about a 50% chance of admiring Atlantic City and a 50% chance of not feeling it. For my part, I chose to split my viewing over two days, even tho it wasn't late in the first day. Pretty sporadic in fun.
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