21 (Blu-ray)

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If anything, "21" proves that the suddenly ubiquitous Jim Sturgess can carry a film even when he's not singing. The likeable young English actor went from British TV to sudden fame with "Across the Universe" (2007), and in 2008 he worked on four projects: "The Other Boleyn Girl," "Crossing Over," "Fifty Dead Men Walking," and this film by Robert Luketic.

Sturgess is perfectly cast as Ben Campbell, a nice kid who spent his entire life working toward his goal of attending Harvard Med School, only to find that. as with too many things in life, it all comes down to money. He doesn't have any, and as he meekly sits in the office of a professor who represents the selection committee, he's basically told that everyone who applies for the full ride has a resume as astounding as his. "Dazzle me," the prof says. Then we flash back to MIT, where a young, wide-eyed Ben's best friend is a geek named Miles Connoly (Josh Gad) and the two of them and another pal spend their fun hours working on a robotic wheel powered by a GPS system they hope will win a competition. Ben is like the flipside of the character Matt Damon played in "Good Will Hunting." While both were stand-out geniuses, Will Hunting was a tough kid ready to hoist a few, hit on the ladies, or mix it up in an instant. Ben spends his 21st birthday with two friends and his mom. And he and his buddies are like typical nerds around women, looking at and talking about them from afar, as if they were strange new planets.

Ben is so brilliant and well-read that the other students don't know what he's talking about, and Prof. Micky Rosa (Kevin Spacey) is so impressed that he summons him to a special group of students one night. Math club? Nope. The statistics professor has been recruiting his best students to work as a team "counting cards" in Vegas. Together, they take little field trips throughout the year, like a high-rolling version of Fagin and his street-urchin pickpockets. Ben is such a good guy that of course he doesn't want to get involved. But the professor knows how to get what he wants, even if it entails having the most attractive young woman in the group (Kate Bosworth, as Jill) do a little convincing on the side.

If you know Blackjack or "21," as it's also called, you'll be ahead of the game, because much of this caper film deals with plus-this or minus-that and hands played so quickly that if you're not a player, the best you can come away with is a phrase the dealers use when the house loses: "Winner, winner, chicken dinner." And when it comes to the concept of counting cards, you'll probably wonder why, if it's not illegal, the casinos employ card sharps and security experts to monitor the tables so they can rough up any card counters they detect, so they'll never count in their establishment again. Is it, or is it not illegal to count cards? And if it's not illegal, then why can't gamblers who are roughed up by casino thugs able to take their complaint to police? Or maybe this is all just like insider trading. You know people do it . . . you just don't want to be the one to get caught. In any event, the plotline involving the security expert at Planet Hollywood (Laurence Fishburne) feels like the most tacked-on element in this straightforward, no surprises film. Even if you haven't been following the cards, you'll see the film's so-called "twist" coming. Based on the book Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions by Ben Mezrich, "21" will have you wondering how much is fact and how much is fiction--which is difficult to say, because the same questions were asked about the book. But if you have one player counting cards at a table and signaling the big player when the deck is "hot," or if you have two players working together in a game, one of them betting low and giving signs to the other, you'd have to say that it's the same kind of cheating as someone who plays poker and has someone with a camera telling him what cards his opponents have. It's not just numbers. It's working like a pack that makes it seem like a clear violation. But that's neither here nor there. The emphasis in "21" is on the journey that wide-eyed good guy Ben takes--his fall from grace and eventual redemption. And for that, Sturgess is perfect.

As predictable and routine as the plot can be, it's Sturgess and a young cast full of interesting people (including Aaron Yoo, Liza Lapira, and Jacob Pitts) that hold our attention. Without these young actors, and without the ever-edgy Spacey, "21" would be just another yawner about gambling. It's the talent that makes us care, and the characters that save an otherwise lackluster script from real mediocrity. There's nothing else noteworthy about this film by Luketic ("Legally Blonde," "Monster-in-Law"). The cinematography is nothing special, the shots are pretty basic, and the screenplay, as I said, offers no delights or surprises. Yet, it's entertaining, and as I said, the cast is largely responsible for that. If you do the math, mentally removing Sturgess from the cast takes away a disproportionate amount of interest. We care as much about this nice guy and the mess he's gotten himself into as we do that quintessential nice guy, Tobey Maguire. Sturgess has the same charismatic combination of self-effacing shyness and down-to-earth honesty that makes him as suitable an Everyman as Maguire. But he has more range than Maguire, which you can see if you isolate him in scenes where he's playing opposite different people. When he's nerding it up with friends, giving in to his feelings with Jill, playing at the tables, jousting with his professor, or hanging tough in the face of house thugs, Sturgess gives us a different dimension of his character every time, with all the facial expressions to support that. He's the biggest bright spot in an otherwise uninspired film.