Owning Mahowny

Starring:Philip Seymour Hoffman, Minnie Driver, John Hurt, Maury Chaykin, Ian Tracey, Sonja Smits, K.C. Collins, Jason Blicker, Vince Corazza, Roger Dunn, Eric Fink, Mike 'Nug' Nahrgang, Tanya Henley, Brona Brown, Philip Craig, Michael Caruana, Gary Brennan, Matthew Ferguson, Tannis Burnett, Steve Cumyn
Director: Richard Kwietniowski
Studio: Sony Pictures
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

Philip Seymour Hoffman adds another great performance to his gallery of losers in Owning Mahowny, an engrossing, fact-based comedy-drama about the perils of compulsive gambling. The subject is hardly new to movies, but as Toronto bank-loan manager Dan Mahowny, Hoffman brings fresh depth and tortured humanity to his portrayal of a man who helplessly feeds his pathological need to gamble with millions in embezzled bank money that he can't afford to lose. His supportive wife (Minnie Driver, barely recognizable beneath a plain-looking wig and glasses) is aware of the problem but not its severity, and in fulfilling the promise of his debut feature Love and Death on Long Island, British director Richard Kwietniowski strikes a delicate balance of humor, adrenalin, and escalating tension, guiding Hoffman, Driver, and an excellent supporting cast (including Long Island's John Hurt) in a quietly suspenseful study of Mahowny's ill-fated impulse. Set in the early 1980s but timeless in its study of dysfunctional behavior, Owning Mahowny is a safe bet for film lovers everywhere. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews:

See this overlooked gem..........2007-03-08

Phillip Seymour Hoffman plays a compelling cipher of a gambling addict in this overlooked and tightly-written movie. It is gripping and stress-inducing from the first scene, and doesn't relent. This is a high-stakes train wreck that is Impossible to look away from. See it.

Very good Hoffman performance........2006-12-14

Owning Mahowny (James Kwietnowski, 2003)

There is a scene at almost the exact halfway point of Owning Mahowny that sums the film up perfectly. Dan Mahowny (the great Philip Seymour Hoffman) is standing in the shower, having just gotten back from a jaunt in Atlantic City where he lost half a million dollars. His girlfriend Belinda (Minnie Driver) confronts him with her suspicions that he has a gambling problem. He says to her, "I don't have a gambling problem. I have... a financial problem." It makes perfect sense in the framework, but when hearing it, you have no idea if Mahowny is lying to cover up his problem or whether he's truly too delusional to see what's happening to him. This question is not answered until the film's final scene-- and when it is, it's an incredible sucker punch, the kind of thing you see coming, but you're too fascinated by the death and destruction laid out before you to even think about avoiding. And that's what makes this film so compelling, despite the fact that, well, it's not.

Yes, I know, that makes no sense. But that's how I kept feeling about it. I would watch for a while, then wonder whether anything was ever actually going to happen, and realize that forty-five minutes had passed. I'd wonder when the incredible stable of actors Kwietnowski recruited for this movie were going to start living up to their potential, and then the movie would pop up with a scene like the one I mention at the beginning. And, of course, there are things like unanswered questions you don't think you'll ever get the answers to.

The plot is simple: Dan Mahowny, a bank executive with a small gambling problem suddenly finds himself in charge of an account where he will have virtually unlimited access to millions of dollars. Hilarity ensues, in a brutally tragic sort of way. While Mahowny continues living his hand-to-mouth life in his native Canada, in Atlantic City he's one of the kings, the high rollers who get armed escorts through the casino, has a personal, first-name relationship with the owner (John Hurt) and a hotel employee whose entire job is to cater to his every whim (Chris Collins). Needless to say, his two lives have to catch up with one another eventually.

I'm of two minds about the movie, and like the character of Dan Mahowny himself, I can't be sure whether it's duplicitous or simply thoughtless. I look back on the movie without thinking much of it-- it kind of fades into the background, like Mahowny himself-- but I remember being absorbed without realizing I was being absorbed. I remember glimpses of greatness, single lines that worked well, great performances from minor characters. But I have to work to remember them. And on one level, this is sheer genius, this idea that the film reflects its focus (in some ways, Owning Mahowny is the epitome of McLuhan's famous charge that "the medium is the message"). On some level, though, maybe Kwietnowski could have picked a flashier subject for that sort of approach. .*** ½

Predictable.......2006-08-23

Robin Hood stole from the rich and gave to the poor. Dan Mahowny stole from the rich and gave to the bookie. I suppose we all can get soppy about a fat fuzz ball loser that can't stop gambling with his bank's money. The film is non-stop losing all day - all the time. No psychosis is more devastating than suicide by chance. The fellow gives it away in a perpetual state of orgiastic losses. He doesn't necessarily hurt the rich woman he is pilfering, but he does ruin his career and love life.

I wouldn't get real excited about this film. There is no character, including Philip Seymour Hoffman you really care about. It's not a comedy and certainly no drama. We know what's going to happen.

Phyllip Seymour Hoffman's Best Performance.......2006-07-03

Philip Seymour Hoffman gives a tour-de-force performance in this gripping tale of gambling addiction. Based on a true story, this simple but elegantly written story takes us on a journey into the mind of a good man who becomes enslaved and must continue to feed his unsatiable need to gamble unti he inevitably loses it all.

A Class Act~.......2006-03-06

Before Hoffman made himself a household name in Capote, he had been diligently working in many indie movies that gave him a reputation for being a chameleon. Hoffman is a character actor and I'm sure that before undertaking this role, he would have studied the real Mahowny intensely. Other than Hoffman, there's Paul Giacamatti that came to my mind who's also as versatile as he is. The premise of the movie is to bring to light how any ordinary persons would get addicted to something so strongly and yet, there are the casinos who would try their best to reap every cents out of the pathological gamblers. This movie really brings to light that with given power, authorities such as the casinos should act responsibly for to well-being of their clients rather than minding for their bottomlines simply. John Hurt was also simply brilliant as the conniving and manipulative casino's boss whilst Minnie Driver was just as effective playing Mahowny's soon-to-be-wed girlfriend, who believed in her man in totality but didn't know the extent Mahawny had dug his hole that he couldn't come out from. A good social study of the society we are living in. Highly recommended and a definite showcase for Hoffman. Not much extra features in here other than the commentary.

Owning Mahowny (Mahowny Obsesion Por El Juego) [NTSC/REGION 4 DVD. Import-Latin America]

Average customer rating:

Owning Mahowny (Mahowny Obsesion Por El Juego) [NTSC/REGION 4 DVD. Import-Latin America]
Director: Richard Kwietniowski
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Average customer rating:

See this overlooked gem...
Very good Hoffman performance.
Predictable
Phyllip Seymour Hoffman's Best Performance
A Class Act~

Owning Mahowny [Region 2]
Starring: Philip Seymour Hoffman , Minnie Driver , John Hurt , Maury Chaykin , and Ian Tracey
Director: Richard Kwietniowski
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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