One could argue that roles in Gosford Park and The Bourne Identity at the start of the noughties, were the linchpin of Clive Owen's hugely successful career. However, you could go further back to 1998 and the release of 'Croupier' - a neo-noir picture that details the life of a failing author (played suavely by Owen) who takes on the job as a croupier to tide himself over - as his first great performance in a leading role. Short of money and lacking in ideas, Jack Manfred (Owen) begins work at the casino in a voyeuristic capacity - watching the lives of the downtrodden as they gamble away their last hopes, with the intention that his findings might inspire a new novel. Using a voice-over monologue straight out of a fifties detective noir, Jack details his encounter with Jani (played by Alex Kingston), a femme-fatale whose offer of £20,000 to partake in a robbery of the casino, is too tempting to turn down. What remains is a strange, twisted movie that refuses to relent its bizarre narrative, no-matter how out of control Jack finds himself. Strangely, Croupier seemed to find more success in American than it did in Britain and has since been re-released. Unfortunately, its following is still disappointingly small considering it convincingly heads the pack of London crime thrillers that were regurgitated onto cinema screens around that time.
