I think most of the audience seeing Owning Mahowny with me didn’t get much of the wry humor in the film; for example, when one character asks Mahowny, surprised that he’s never been to Niagara Falls, “How come you’ve never gone?”, and Mahowny ponders for a moment and then replies thoughtfully, “I guess I don’t want to use up all of Canada too soon,” I was the only one in the theater laughing. Mahowny seems like a very Canadian film to me: low key, kind of grey, dry wit, and quietly accomplished.
Philip Seymour Hoffman is terrific as the title character, a mild bank manager whose sole vice is a staggering gambling habit (the movie, incidentally, is based on actual events). Desperate to pay off a debt, he siphons some money from a client’s account and soon finds, much as Leonardo DiCaprio did in Catch Me If You Can, that you can make off with millions in a trusting society that puts a lot of stock in appearances. (As Glenn Kenny says in Premiere, the amount Mahowny ends up embezzling sounds like a lot at first, but then you realize it’s Canadian money.) Actually, Mahowny is the flip side of DiCaprio’s free-spending Frank Abagnale; he spends his money on nothing but more gambling. He keeps his same battered briefcase and clunker car; even when casinos comp him dazzling suites, he dumps his bags in his room and heads right to the craps table. Hoffman is great at this single-minded, joyless indulgence; he’s as grimly intent when he’s up by $9 million as when he’s down to his last chip.
John Hurt is marvelous as the manager of Mahowny’s favorite
casino in Atlantic City, particularly when he’s battling with his Vegas
affiliate over Mahowny’s business. And I’m pleased to report that
Minnie Driver does not ruin this movie!
She’s actually even not bad; she eschews her usual bizarre facial contortions.
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