Pesci has really played this role before, in Scorsese’s “GoodFellas,” for which he won a well-deserved Oscar. Playing two smart people who are blind to the destructive nature of their infatuations, De Niro and Stone gradually, sometimes affectingly, suggest the fundamental lack of trust that turns this into a marriage from hell. While this sounds like a formula for tabloid tragedy, the actors turn it into something more. She tries to see him again, Ace turns obsessive and jealous, Ginger turns to drugs and alcohol, and Nicky gets directly involved in their troubles. When Ace insists on marrying one of the savviest local golddiggers, Ginger McKenna (Sharon Stone), it turns out that she’s still attached to an old boyfriend (James Woods). That is, until he grows comfortable enough to think he can buy anything. The volatile Nicky is the hit man who takes care of the more extreme problems, but the quieter Ace is just as capable of protecting his interests. The first hour succeeds as an insider’s view of the casino world, where ex-cheats spy on unsuspecting new cheats, and the most elaborate and brutal methods are used to keep them from stealing too much at the gambling tables. Much of it is fascinating, particularly the early scenes of Las Vegas in the 1970s, when Midwest bookie Sam “Ace” Rothstein (Robert De Niro) and his best friend Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci) take over several casinos for the mob.

But director Martin Scorsese doesn’t know when to pull the plug. “Casino” might have been a very good movie if it had lost about one of its three hours.

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