California Split is about two friends, one of whom is relativley normal and another who is insane. Both are immature and compulsive gamblers, allthough they would say they just gamble for fun. Actully most of their lives are about having fun, to the exclusion other interests, such as working or having meaningful retationships with other people.
This sounds like the premise for a depressing social issue drama, but the film is directed by Robert Altman, so there's a lot of humor and interesting sidetrips. The director does, of course, show us the fundamentally empty lives its characters lead, but also shows us the appeal of never growing up and living in perpetual state of adolencse. And the ending is remarkable- I won't reveal what happens, but it's not what you'd expect.
The relativley normal gambler is Bill (George Segal) who runs what is apparently a travel agency but often ducks out to chill with Charlie (Elliot Gould) or gamble. Charlie is apparently unemployed or possibly some kind of pimp, since he lives with two prostitues, one whom Bill starts to fall for. The two have some juvinile kicks until Bill runs up serious gambling debt and gets in trouble with his bookie. He makes the mistake of turning to Charlie for a solution, which is of course- just gamble some more.
One of the things that make this film so unique is in the beginning the characters are annoying, perhaps intentionally so. They do redicoulous things and annoy most of the people around them. But when Bill gets into trouble, a strange thing happens and we starting rooting for him, and Charlie's hijinks become funny.
The movie is also sucessful because it is not necessary an anti-gambling statement as much as it is a pro-adult statement (or at least, that's how I saw it). Altman handles this material very well, as he avoids making heavy handed statements but does not shirk when it comes to depecting the real hurt and emptyness the men (and especially Bill) feel.
Although I will not give away the ending, I will state that it is quite brillant, as well as being both hopeful and pessimestic. It must be a form of hell to be trapped in a world where happiness occurs according to random chance, but, then again, sometimes if you gamble, you win.
California Split (1974)