OWNING MAHOWNY
Starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Minnie Driver, John Hurt and Maury Chaykin. 14A. 115 min.
Entering the psychological space of an obsessive gambler can be a lot of things: exciting, angst-laden, sexy maybe, but more than anything, it's frustrating.
How else can you describe the feeling that comes with watching some sick boob blow his life to smithereens because he's addicted to the high of chance? It's no easier than watching a crackhead suckle the pipe.
The only difference is the gambler doesn't destroy his brain with chemicals, he warps it with his own will -- which is far more interesting, because it suggests strength and weakness simultaneously.
Few films have been able to capture the jagged, double-edged blade of gambling addiction with as much character as Owning Mahowny.
P.T. Anderson's Hard Eight nailed the sleazy lifestyle of the career gambler, Robert Rossen's The Hustler gave us a glimpse of desperate redemption at the end of a pool cue, while just about everything else in the "gambling" genre either plays up the glam of being a high roller, or revels in the seedy underbelly of the casino scene in the name of "realism."
Richard Kwietniowski's Owning Mahowny does none of the above. A smart movie that carves its own path through the valley of sin, Kwietniowski's effort reinvents gambling movie convention at every turn, and gives us one of the most humble protagonists to ever succumb to master-of-the-universe syndrome.
Dan Mahowny (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is your average work slob. He works as a loans manager at a bank in downtown Toronto -- and appears to be relatively content grinding out paperwork for the big machine.
People like Dan. He even has a girlfriend (Minnie Driver) who watches him from behind her teardrop glasses framed by Farrah flips. To almost everyone watching, Dan is just a regular guy -- not a high-roller known to every major casino on the Eastern seaboard.
Yet, behind that dough-faced exterior lurks a heart dark as molasses, and the beauty of Owning Mahowny is how Kwietniowski puts his character in a slow cooker, and ever so gradually -- ever so delicately -- turns him inside out.
By relying on psychological drama over surface gimmicks, the director -- who also co-wrote the script -- manages to make the most of every moment, gracing each shot with as much humour as pathos. The result is a movie that keeps you guessing about the final outcome, while marvelling at Mahowny's grasp of the game.
Though it often seems to push the envelope of believability, Owning Mahowny is based on the real story of a Toronto bank employee who embezzled hundreds of thousands to finance his addiction and beat the house at its own game. The story was chronicled in the bestselling book Stung, and for years, many writers tried to bring it to the screen -- with no success.
The key to this version is the central character of Mahowny, who remains sympathetic despite his huge flaw because he's not interested in the trappings of the lifestyle. He's not seduced by booze and women. He's focused on the game at hand, and that makes him something of a hero to the casino operators who see him as an old-style player -- a real pro.
Again, there's a nice contrast here because while many of his buddies in urban Toronto see him as a schmo, the hard-to-impress pit bosses see him in heroic proportions.
The problem is Mahowny's two worlds are beginning to merge, leaving him impaled on the fence he's erected within his own character. He struggles, but only winds up deeper in financial and moral debt. Without revealing too many details in this gritty little gem from the man who brought us Love and Death on Long Island, let's just say there were a few nice twists that maintained the story's Canadian identity -- and they went beyond Driver's perfectly rounded "ehs?"
Definitely not your average gambling yarn, Owing Mahowny finds the human heart of addiction and, without making quick and easy character judgments, lets us wallow in a surprisingly delightful misery before showing us salvation.
http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/story.asp?id=B9994299-5C9C-4288-B590-22BF3DAC6F2D
Starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Minnie Driver, John Hurt and Maury Chaykin. 14A. 115 min.
Entering the psychological space of an obsessive gambler can be a lot of things: exciting, angst-laden, sexy maybe, but more than anything, it's frustrating.
How else can you describe the feeling that comes with watching some sick boob blow his life to smithereens because he's addicted to the high of chance? It's no easier than watching a crackhead suckle the pipe.
The only difference is the gambler doesn't destroy his brain with chemicals, he warps it with his own will -- which is far more interesting, because it suggests strength and weakness simultaneously.
Few films have been able to capture the jagged, double-edged blade of gambling addiction with as much character as Owning Mahowny.
P.T. Anderson's Hard Eight nailed the sleazy lifestyle of the career gambler, Robert Rossen's The Hustler gave us a glimpse of desperate redemption at the end of a pool cue, while just about everything else in the "gambling" genre either plays up the glam of being a high roller, or revels in the seedy underbelly of the casino scene in the name of "realism."
Richard Kwietniowski's Owning Mahowny does none of the above. A smart movie that carves its own path through the valley of sin, Kwietniowski's effort reinvents gambling movie convention at every turn, and gives us one of the most humble protagonists to ever succumb to master-of-the-universe syndrome.
Dan Mahowny (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is your average work slob. He works as a loans manager at a bank in downtown Toronto -- and appears to be relatively content grinding out paperwork for the big machine.
People like Dan. He even has a girlfriend (Minnie Driver) who watches him from behind her teardrop glasses framed by Farrah flips. To almost everyone watching, Dan is just a regular guy -- not a high-roller known to every major casino on the Eastern seaboard.
Yet, behind that dough-faced exterior lurks a heart dark as molasses, and the beauty of Owning Mahowny is how Kwietniowski puts his character in a slow cooker, and ever so gradually -- ever so delicately -- turns him inside out.
By relying on psychological drama over surface gimmicks, the director -- who also co-wrote the script -- manages to make the most of every moment, gracing each shot with as much humour as pathos. The result is a movie that keeps you guessing about the final outcome, while marvelling at Mahowny's grasp of the game.
Though it often seems to push the envelope of believability, Owning Mahowny is based on the real story of a Toronto bank employee who embezzled hundreds of thousands to finance his addiction and beat the house at its own game. The story was chronicled in the bestselling book Stung, and for years, many writers tried to bring it to the screen -- with no success.
The key to this version is the central character of Mahowny, who remains sympathetic despite his huge flaw because he's not interested in the trappings of the lifestyle. He's not seduced by booze and women. He's focused on the game at hand, and that makes him something of a hero to the casino operators who see him as an old-style player -- a real pro.
Again, there's a nice contrast here because while many of his buddies in urban Toronto see him as a schmo, the hard-to-impress pit bosses see him in heroic proportions.
The problem is Mahowny's two worlds are beginning to merge, leaving him impaled on the fence he's erected within his own character. He struggles, but only winds up deeper in financial and moral debt. Without revealing too many details in this gritty little gem from the man who brought us Love and Death on Long Island, let's just say there were a few nice twists that maintained the story's Canadian identity -- and they went beyond Driver's perfectly rounded "ehs?"
Definitely not your average gambling yarn, Owing Mahowny finds the human heart of addiction and, without making quick and easy character judgments, lets us wallow in a surprisingly delightful misery before showing us salvation.
http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/story.asp?id=B9994299-5C9C-4288-B590-22BF3DAC6F2D
