AFI Fest Review: ‘The Gambler’ Starring Mark Wahlberg, John Goodman, Brie Larson and Michael K. Williams

A mission matched to Mark Wahlberg’s on-screen roles means an intense optimism, an earnest resolve that one can easily visualize. Eyes wide, nostrils flared, an incredulous stutter – his face is a perfect slate on which to register stakes as they build. “The Gambler” sets that slate to zero and stages a man who knows the stakes and doesn’t care: $125,000 owed, seven days to pay, and Jim Bennett (Wahlberg), a college literature professor, liable to repeat the situation even if he clears his name.

The film in which this premise unfolds intrigues by its director, or more specifically its director’s decision to tackle it: Rupert Wyatt (“The Escapist”), who previously handed 20th Century Fox a new franchise with “Rise of the Planet of the Apes.” Instead of turning to another big-budget tentpole, he’s used his studio clout on this, a remake of the 1974 New York-set drama starring James Caan and penned by James Toback.

Toback and Caan – those two names alone conjure a level of grit and...