Owning Mahowny (2003)

Richard Kwietniowski's "Owning Mahowny" is an unfiltered, unglazed portrait of the very un-sexy life of a compulsive gambler. It is based on the true story of Dan Mawhony, a banking executive who swindled his own bank out of millions of dollars to fund his gambling addiction.

Mahowny is played with precision by the brilliantly unglamorous Phillip Seymour Hoffman, who has made a career out of portraying sad-sack losers and characters uncomfortable in their own skin. In Dan Mahowny, he has created a picture of a loser who not does not acknowledge his serious problem, but doesn't really care if others think he's a loser. He only cares about the thrill of betting, and through the process alienates his fiancé Belinda (Minnie Driver), throws himself into a life of criminal embezzlement, and even begins to scare his bookie, who at the beginning of the film refuses to take Mahowny's bets.

The film works because it doesn't focus on the pursuit of Mahowny by Canadian law enforcement; it doesn't care too much about his repentance. Instead, it's a study of the mechanisms of the gambling addict. Their behavior is a pattern that is noticed by the slick Victor Foss, owner of the Atlantic City casino that is Mahowny's second home in the film. Foss is intrigued by the appearance of this high-stakes gambler, who shuns the perks and luxuries showered upon him by the casino and chooses instead to grind away on the casino floor, expressionless and unmoving. Foss is a true predator. He's seen all kinds of gamblers, but when he realizes that in Mahowny, he has a pure gambling addict who lives to win money just so he can lose it again, he laughs with glee, like the experience big-game fisherman who has just caught a prize trout.

Hoffman is one of the best character actors today, and his performance is ripe with textured subtlety. When winning, Mahowny is calm and cheerful, but still focused. When losing, his panic and disappointment ooze from his pores instead of leap from his stomach, which is how a regular gambler might react to losing thousands of dollars in one sitting. In one particularly resonant scene, Mawhowny hands over a chunk of his blackjack winnings, most likely his initial stake, to his friend and tells him not to give it back to him at all costs. Of course, we see this fail, when Mahowny returns and demands the money back. This is a familiar ritual with gambling addicts; they futilely put in controls to limit their losses, only to give in to the rush and look for ways to continue playing at all costs.

A film like this is interesting because it is a tragedy that gives us no villains to root against and no heroes to root for. Like Belinda, we hope that Mahowny can free himself from his addiction, but know all too well that he won't be able to, and watch with morbid fascination as he continues to spiral downwards. The film is worth watching for Hoffman's controlled performance and the sadistic voyeurism we share with Foss while watching a man succumb to his demons without putting up much of a fight.