Posted: Mar 08, 2020 3:27 am
Dealt (2017)Haunting documentary, not because it's about a consumate card mechanic, Richard Turner, who's blind and would rather that not be part of his act, although that's astounding too. Like any great doc, it reveals layers of its subject, and they're well worth revealing. But it also presents us his beautiful, ordinary acquaintances; and when you have multiple enigmatic characters in the same space, just being themselves, there's a quiet magic. I finished the movie not quite feeling as though I knew these people, but deeply wishing I'd had the chance to. There's also a juxtaposition between Richard's painful insularity - which is without a doubt genuine - and the voyeuristic act of exposing his life to the camera. That insularity is the quiet center of the doc, but it's never underlined, and that's what haunted me. It lingered as a barely acknowledged theme until the end, when I was finally aware of its importance. It's like Richard only let me know what he was really about when he was saying goodbye.