HARD EIGHT (1997) (***1/2)

While it teeters between a post-PULP FICTION hip crime story and the complex family dynamics that will come to signify his later work, director Paul Thomas Anderson put on display his impressive talent in his debut film, HARD EIGHT. Many of the Anderson troupe are here — Philip Baker Hall, John C. Reilly, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Robert Ridgely and Melora Walters. As a writer, Anderson makes his central character Sydney a mystery, driving the story forward. Is he a guardian angel or a devil in disguise?

As the story begins, the 60-something Sydney (Hall, BOOGIE NIGHTS) offers the down-on-his-luck John (Reilly, CHICAGO) a cup of coffee and a cigarette. John, who has been trying to win money in Vegas to bury his dead mother, even suspects Sydney's kindness as a come on, but the old man just wants to help teach the kid how to work the system and get him a room for the night. Time passes and Sydney has become a mentor for John as they travel around the country from casino to casino. In Reno, a pretty waitress named Clementine (Gwyneth Paltrow, PROOF) catches the eye of John. Meanwhile, John's new friend, the shifty security guard Jimmy (Samuel L. Jackson, JACKIE BROWN), might be the key to discovering what lurks in Sydney's past.

From the opening in the coffee shop and many of the long passages of dialogue, one gets the distinct feel that this film is riding the wave of PULP FICTION. (The presence of Samuel L. Jackson does nothing to diminish that feeling any further.) But what distinguishes it from Quentin Tarantino's pop-culture-infused classic is the tone. Driven by the low hum of the soundtrack, the Vegas setting makes the actions of the characters all the more shady. The quiet pacing adds to the suspense. Plot twists will arise, but nothing is out of character. All the characters have darkness hiding within them.

For a debut film, Anderson was also lucky to have a first-class cast. Hall brings a calm dignity to the character. However, his calm at times seems forced like he's purposely holding emotions within, making us all the more uncertain about him. Reilly's John is a likeable guy, but he isn't too bright, which creates problems and humor along the way. Jackson makes Jimmy crude and unsophisticated, but insulted when others think he is just that. Paltrow gives one of her best performances as a sweet waitress on the surface, who has a streak of nasty pig-headness running through her.

While he will go on to refine his own personal style, Anderson makes HARD EIGHT a captivating crime mystery. With tantalizing dialogue that never gets too glib for its own good, this story centers on four distinct souls who all have secrets they're ashamed of. But like Anderson's other work, they will try their hardest to find their own personal redemption even if their past influences the present in ways they wish it wouldn't.