Fossier, parallelism in Croupier

Mike Hodges, the director of Croupier, subscribes the Classical
Cutting model of editing. He even openly admits that his characters and
thematic ideology are directly influenced by his position as a seaman in the
Royal Navy. Hodges noted that lower classes were confined to the worst jobs
below deck while the middle and upper classes were above deck: a distinction
that became a metaphor for Hodges’ trilogy.

When applied to Croupier, his class struggles resonate
in the main character Jack/Jake (Clive Owen). Jack’s problems are apparent from
his characters first spoken dialogue on screen, “I need a job.” He even has to
sell his car for rent money. Though many of my classmates wrote about personal appearance,
I want to talk parallels and differences in behavior in Jack/Jake, most notably
his habit of never gambling.

While I agree his personality fragments a little, a typical trope of characters who are writers, I do not believe Jack ever considers himself, or “becomes” another person when donning
his uniform. Jack has a strict “no betting” policy that begins to change with the influence of Jake. But I argue that just like his betting, he cannot write without that influence either. The parallel of gambling and writers block comes to a head as his book is only published after he considers Jani’s (Alex Kingston) proposal. These two actions seem linked in Jack’s brain, which is why it is important that he does not embrace another persona, he is still the same person but perhaps it more along the lines of Jack’s interpretation of what he views as Jake’s motivating actions. He sees himself as a character in his story, and those around him are also two dimensional entities like his live-in girlfriend (Gina McKee) who he “half loves” and claims to her to be his conscious.

But on a more surface level, parallels can be drawn from dialogue in Jack’s initial interview when he boss asks about his past experience in South Africa, and mentions not be involved
with any customers, especially female customers. This parallelism is completed after
the climax in which it is revealed that Jani is his father’s mistress.