The Poker House

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Movie
Original title The Poker House
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 2008
length 93 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Lori Petty
script David Alan Grier ,
Lori Petty
production Stephen J. Cannell ,
Michael Dubelko
camera Ken Seng
cut Tirsa Hackshaw
occupation

The Poker House is an American drama from 2008. The autobiographical film is the directorial debut of screenwriter and director Lori Petty . The main roles are played by Selma Blair , Chloë Grace Moretz and Jennifer Lawrence , who played a leading role for the first time. In the film she plays Agnes, the eldest of three sisters who raise her two younger siblings in her mother's whore house.

action

The film focuses on a single day in the lives of the abused and neglected three sisters, Agnes (14), Bee (12) and Cammie (8). Her mother Sarah - a woman who became a prostitute to take care of the girls - was forced into alcohol and drug abuse by her pimp Duval. For this reason Sarah does not take care of the girls and puts Agnes in a position of quasi-mother to the two younger daughters. The five live in their mother's house, which ultimately also serves as a brothel and poker house. It is called "The Poker House" by the residents of the area. Agnes believes that Duval loves her as a friend does, even though he abuses her mother.

The film begins when Agnes comes home very early in the morning. She begins tidying up the house and wakes Bee after preparing her distribution route for the newspapers. The conversation between the two reveals that there is another sister, Cammie, and that Cammie often stays at her friend Sheila's house overnight. The film shows that the girls and their mother were once a real family. Her father, a preacher who once before her eyes healed a man who was in a wheelchair for the rest of his life, beat his wife and the girls. The four left him and their mother became a prostitute to make ends meet.

The day alternates between the individual girls. There is little interaction between the three. Bee talks about moving to foster care. Cammie spends the day in a bar, making friends with Dolly, the bar owner, and Stymie, an alcoholic. Agnes drives around town, talks to a few friends, plays basketball, and picks up some of her paychecks. Among other things, she works as a columnist for the local newspaper. At the end of the day, Agnes climbs into Bees' room through the window on the second floor to avoid the living room, which is full of gamblers, pimps and drunks. Bee has locked herself in her room to avoid the chaos on the first floor like Agnes. Agnes gets Bee to leave the house and tells her to stay away for a while. Then she goes downstairs and a stranger starts talking to her. He asks her why she is there, and she replies that the poker house is her home and that her mother is the prostitute. The man gives her a pitying look, but she walks away before he can speak.

Later that evening, Duval raped the helplessly intoxicated Agnes. When he finally lets go of her, she runs into the bathroom to clean herself. She is completely traumatized. Her mother enters the bathroom and Agnes reaches for her in despair, but only gets a drunken and emotionless answer. When Agnes crouches in the bathtub and cries, her mother sends her to run errands. She is supposed to get more alcohol and cigarettes for herself and the people in the house. Then she tells Agnes about the days when she was still a baby and how she became a growing nuisance and always asked to have something read to her. Soon after, Agnes hears Duval demanding that Sarah start prostituting Agnes too. She threatens to shoot Duval and yells at her mother that he raped her. But Sarah just tells Agnes that she will defend him. Agnes leaves her to go to her basketball game. After scoring more than 20 points in seven minutes in the second half, a record that would last for years to come, Agnes limps to the car and has a breakdown. Then she wipes away her tears and pushes the terrible events of the night from her mind. She drives off and finds Bee and Cammie on a nearby bridge. The two get into the car and Agnes avoids telling them about the events of the evening. Instead, she takes them to dinner. Bee reveals that after going to a bar, she went to a friend's house and that she found Cammie. Then Cammie puts in a cassette tape with "Ain't No Mountain High Enough," and the film ends with the three girls singing the song together.

At the beginning of the credits it is revealed that Agnes left Iowa to go to New York to become an actress and artist. It also reveals that the film is the director and actress' true story, Lori Petty's childhood.

reception

The US film review website Rotten Tomatoes received 80% positive reviews from a total of five reviews. The average rating is 6.2 / 10. LA Weekly's John Wheeler called The Poker House one of the most personal and vulnerable films in years. The film service saw a "moving drama, mainly thanks to outstanding actors, which, despite the hard material, also strikes a hopeful note".

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Poker House at Rotten Tomatoes , accessed September 10, 2014.
  2. ^ John Wheeler: Movie Reviews: Death In Love, 500 Days of Summer, Severed Ways. Also, The Poker House, The Queen and I, and more. LA Weekly , July 15, 2009, accessed September 10, 2014 : "The Poker House is one of the most personal, wounded films in years."
  3. ^ The Poker House. Film service , accessed September 10, 2014 .