Mark Wahlberg plays a professor with a gambling addiction, writes Damon Smith

Silence is golden for everyone except American screenwriter William Monahan. With an Oscar on the mantelpiece for The Departed, his English language reworking of the Hong Kong thriller Infernal Affairs, the Massachusetts-born scribe attempts a similar feat of alchemy with this modern update to the 1974 film of the same name directed by Karel Reisz.

Alas, Monahan’s penchant for excessively wordy set pieces proves an insurmountable distraction.

He arms the cast with polished one-liners and barbed retorts that would draw blood if his woe-begotten characters weren’t so emotionally cold and distant.

After the first hour of endless verbos-ity, I hoped, in vain as it transpired, that Monahan would rein in the dialogue and let actions speak 100 words instead.

No such luck.

But then good fortune is in perilously short supply in Rupert Wyatt’s film, which unfolds through the bloodshot eyes of a college professor, whose daredevil antics at the blackjack table have left him heavily in debt to men who trade in violence.

From the moody opening frames, all bets are off whether the eponymous gambler will end his losing streak and evade a knee-capping — or something worse.

The misery begins with Jim Bennett (Mark Wahlberg) striding into an under-ground den run by one of his creditors, Mister Lee (Alvin Ing). The night ends badly, as usual, leaving Jim with seven days to find 240,000 US dollars.

“Get me my money,” threatens Mister Lee. Without enough money to stake at a table, Jim borrows 50,000 US dollars from Neville Baraka (Michael Kenneth Williams) and also turns to his mother (Jessica Lange).

“I don’t want to understand the nature of your problem. I just want you not to have it,” she snarls.

A further loan from a hulking gangster called Frank gives Jim the collateral he needs to gamble himself back into the black. Jim spars with his students and sparks an affair with his most talented pupil, Amy (Brie Larson). As time runs out for Jim to settle his spiralling debts, Neville warns: “I’m going to kill that pretty little blonde girl, mail you the pictures, and kill you next.”

The Gambler stakes everything on Monahan’s screenplay and incurs losses.

Wahlberg is elevated by the material but those long speeches, including a centrepiece rant in the lecture theatre, become wearisome.

He verbally jousts with Lange in fiery form as a matriarch who is sick of hauling her son out of the mire.

Larson is shamefully underused in an underwritten supporting role.

Director Wyatt should crank up tension every time Jim sits down at a card table. Instead, we savour the momentary silence as the lead character stops philosophising to concentrate on the deck.

The Gambler (U)   
11mins.  Drama/Thriller/Romance
Directed by Rupert Wyatt 
Starring Mark Wahlberg, Brie Larson, Jessica Lange, John Goodman, Michael Kenneth Williams, George Kennedy, Alvin Ing.