by MARK SLUTSKY

William H. Macy's hangdog expression is put to good use in The Cooler, Wayne Kramer's debut feature. Of all the sad sacks Macy's played in his career, Bernie Lootz, his character in The Cooler, might be the saddest - a guy so unlucky he's contagious. An ex-gambler with a big debt hanging over his head, Macy's employed at the seedy Shangri-La casino in Las Vegas, managing to spread the misfortune around. If a gambler's on a hot streak, Macy's job is to sidle up to the table, and his bad fortune will do the rest, "cooling him down" (hence the title), and inevitably causing the lucky dice-tosser to lose.

As the movie begins, Macy's five days away from quitting. As we learn, he'd taken the job some years back to pay off the enormous amounts of money he owed to his vicious boss, played by Alec Baldwin. In the following few days, a few things crop up that threaten to impede Macy's escape from the casino - most significantly, Macy's burgeoning romance with cocktail waitress Maria Bello. What's more, the Shangri-La's owner shows up, with plans to modernize and revitalize the place, causing much consternation on Baldwin's part - despite his fearsome nature, it turns out he's pretty sentimental about the glory days of Vegas.

The Cooler has a pretty solid premise, and you couldn't ask for a better cast. But ultimately, it's not very good. Watching it, you can't help but wish you were watching a better Vegas movie, like Casino or Hard Eight (in fact, there's a craps-playing scene that's pretty much a shot-for-shot replica of the one in Hard Eight).

For a movie about gambling, luck, and superstition, The Cooler never really goes anywhere risky, with a lot of beefy, awkward dialogue overwhelming the actors. Baldwin has been getting a lot of Oscar talk for his performance, and while he's good as always, he can only go so far with the weak sentimental-gangster stuff the script throws at him. A good premise and talented cast can only go so far; sadly, The Cooler's script just craps out.

The Cooler opens Friday, Jan. 23

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