I remember seeing it in the theaters. I liked it then, but not as much as I would within the year. It later became a source of much comfort, despite the fact that I didn't play poker. The underlying premise that one cannot be something apart from one's true self struck resonant chords in my soul in my last weeks in Bellevue. I watched the film from the hottub, with the subtitles on, feeling freed from the role into which I had volunteered myself. I took the DVD in the divorce. It narrowly trailed Taxi Driver in the movies I played in the clubhouse-like office I shared with my co-workers. I don't know which they preferred.
"At least you're rounding again."
Lord Jim taught me what I needed to know about the soul and drive. Rounders just restated it in a way that was contemporary.