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MOVIES / ON DVD / OWNING MAHOWNY
Owning Mahowny

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Owning Mahowny (2003)

78%
75%
81%
N/A
N/A
N/A
78 %
Reviews Counted: 91 Fresh: 71  Rotten:20 Average Rating: 6.9/10
 
Consensus: This story of addiction may lack the typical flash and glamour, but Hoffman makes Mahowny compelling.
 

How does the Tomatometer work?

The Tomatometer measures the percentage of positive reviews from Approved Tomatometer Critics for a certain movie.[-]

Runtime: 1 hr 47 mins

Synopsis: Polite, mild-mannered Dan Mahowny is an assistant bank manager with a head for numbers, a knack for making decisions, and a devastating appetite for gambling. Dan Mahowny is the unlikely hero who takes on two of the financial institutions everyone loves to hate, the bank and the casino, and,... Polite, mild-mannered Dan Mahowny is an assistant bank manager with a head for numbers, a knack for making decisions, and a devastating appetite for gambling. Dan Mahowny is the unlikely hero who takes on two of the financial institutions everyone loves to hate, the bank and the casino, and, for a brief while, he wins.

The most remarkable thing about this phenomenal story of $10.2 million of siphoned bank funds, staggering levels of embezzlement, and millions upon millions of dollars funnelled through the gambling networks, is that its central character is unphenomenal. He doesn’t gamble for material wealth. He isn’t interested in the glamorous perks casinos offer big spenders. It never occurs to him to save any of his winnings. He lives for the thrill of the bet. And that thrill drives him to incredible lengths of ingenuity and stamina. He is, in the purest sense imaginable, an addict.

The backdrop of the story is 1982, deemed by economists as the beginning of the excessively profitable Reagan bull market. Banking confidence is high and scrutiny is low. This tidily overlaps with the world of casinos which are a stock exchange for the libido. It is a limitless world based on win or lose, where the win always seems within reach, yet stretches to infinity.

By day, Mahowny works obsessively in the bank; by night, he gambles obsessively on sports, ponies and at the gaming tables, but he is no Jekyll and Hyde. His personality remains constant throughout. So contradictory, yet complementary, is his behaviour that his girlfriend, Belinda, a clerk at the same branch, has to struggle to reconcile their romance.

Indulged by the management of the bank which flatters itself for having found its own wunderkind, nurtured by the Atlantic City casino manager who sees the banker as a meal ticket to Vegas, Mahowny finds himself in a gambler’s paradox - playing with increasing odds in order to win back the limitless funds which are his to take as long as he doesn’t get caught.

When this reluctant high-roller is finally arrested, Mahowny reveals that since his twelfth birthday, he hadn’t gone more than 72 hours without placing a bet. His compulsive nature comes to the surface in a most astonishing way - he asks the police to call the bank. He’s worried about being late for work. -- © 2002 Sony Pictures Classics [More]

Genre: Dramas

Starring: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Minnie Driver, Maury Chakin, John Hurt, Sonja Smits

Director: Richard Kwietniowski
Screenwriter: Maurice Chauvet
Producer: Seaton McLean, Alessandro Camon, Edward R. Pressman

DVD Info

Release:

Feb 10, 2004

[DVD Details]

DVD Features:

  • Region 1
  • Keep Case
  • Widescreen

Audio:

  • Dolby Digital 2.0 - English

Reviews

 
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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 5 >> >|
Arrange By: Name | Fresh | Rotten | Date | Source
 
 
Ratings Image
4.5/5

Atmospheric and never flashy, and yet capable of moments of unbearable tension and an almost overpowering sense of paranoia.

Full Review | comment Comment
03/16/04
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall
Ratings Image
5/10

what was fascinating character study becomes banal and unconvincing cautionary tale

Full Review | comment Comment
07/03/05
Dragan Antulov
Draxblog Movie Reviews
Ratings Image
A-

...a movie that rejects the pyrotechnics, glamour and spectacle-mongering of mainstream Hollywood yet manages to engage, connect and transfix.

Full Review | comment Comment
01/29/05
Philip Martin
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Ratings Image
N/A

Watching Hoffman completely give himself over to his addiction is pretty draining. Although the film has a subtext … it's basically a ride down to the bottom with an addict.

Full Review | comment Comment
04/30/04
Matt Kelemen
Las Vegas CityLife
Ratings Image
4/5

The flick's absolutely worth seeing for Hoffman's performance alone, but there's also enough Casino / Heist goodness to keep you entertained.

Full Review | comment Comment
03/31/04
Scott Weinberg
eFilmCritic.com
Ratings Image
4/5

Hoffman, sempre um ator interessante, oferece uma atuação digna dos grandes nomes da 7ª Arte, como Brando, De Niro e Sean Penn.

comment Comment
01/19/04
Pablo Villaca
Cinema em Cena
Ratings Image
B

This is the fascinating thing about the movie, how Mahowny marches off to his doom, totally distracted from his fate by the thrill of gambling.

Full Review | comment Comment
01/17/04
Robert Roten
Laramie Movie Scope
Ratings Image
4/4

Philip Seymour Hoffman is like a stack of pure Inca gold in the world of thespian addicts - a world I dwell happily in…

Full Review | comment Comment
10/01/03
Emily Blunt
Blunt Review
Ratings Image
2.5/4

Surprisingly upbeat story based, in part, on the real-life adventures of gambling addict Brian Moloney. While it’s interesting, it’s seldom affecting.

Full Review | comment Comment
09/26/03
Forrest Hartman
Reno Gazette-Journal
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review | comment Comment
09/18/03
Orlando Weekly
Ratings Image
3.5/4

You can bet on Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Full Review | comment Comment
09/16/03
Linda Cook
Quad City Times (Davenport, IA)
Ratings Image
N/A

Whether or not you think of gambling as a vice, you can bet on Owning Mahowny.

Full Review | comment Comment
09/12/03
Jay Boyar
Orlando Sentinel
Ratings Image
4/5

A stark and revealing film that's as moving as it is disquieting.

Full Review | comment Comment
09/06/03
Josh Bell
Las Vegas Weekly
Ratings Image
3/4

Hoffman makes it impossible for us not to watch and not to enjoy it all on some subliminal level.

Full Review | comment Comment
09/05/03
Joe Baltake
Sacramento Bee
Ratings Image
N/A

...this human car wreck methodically spins itself out with agonizing inevitability...that the film is also quite funny is an unexpected bonus.

Full Review | comment Comment
08/20/03
Sean Burns
Philadelphia Weekly
Ratings Image
5/10

This film felt more like a Canadian 'TV Movie of the Week' than anything.

Full Review | comment Comment
08/15/03
JoBlo
JoBlo's Movie Emporium
Ratings Image
3/4

Hoffman gorgeously captures the plight of the hopeless gambling addict.

comment Comment
08/14/03
Phil Villarreal
Arizona Daily Star
Ratings Image
3.5/4

When Hoffman steps from the shower, the blond spitcurl plastered to his forehead increases his resemblance to a big, pathetic Kewpie doll. He's simultaneously lovable and repulsive.

Full Review | comment Comment
08/11/03
John Beifuss
Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)
Ratings Image
2/4

The material [Hoffman is] working with is so spotty, so filled with distractions, that even he can't overcome them all.

Full Review | comment Comment
08/08/03
Jeff Vice
Deseret News, Salt Lake City
Ratings Image
3.5/4

[Hoffman's] understated and powerful performance ... is a lucid study in the obsessive force of one man's gambling addiction.

Full Review | comment Comment
08/08/03
Sean Means
Salt Lake Tribune
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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