Owning Mahowny

Owning Mahowny
by Richard Kwietniowski

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DVD Reviews of Owning Mahowny

DVD Review: Could Have been Great
Summary: 3 Stars

I was very disappointed with the movie. At the time I read the book, I thought it would make a wonderful movie, and expected one when I read news that this movie, though small in budget, would be made, and done so with a cast including Hoffman and Hurt.

Hoffman is great as always, required to act like a degenerate gambler without being able to say much because of what I believe was a debilitating script. Hoffman adopts a realistic Canadian accent and was made to look the part accurately -- even as accurate as the food in which he liked to indulge.

Hurt, however, is a joke. He's supposed to play some kind of host/casino exec/pit boss -- neither of whom I'm sure he's ever met in his life and neither of whom in the book was enveloped into the machismo of a character he portrays. I think so highly of Hurt as an actor, that I'm inclined to blame the script for any of his scene's shortcomings. Exchanges between Hurt's character and that of Hoffman's could have been majestic (think how great Hurt was in Contact and in Rob Roy), but the script rendered Hurt just ordinary, sometimes over-the-top, and left Hoffman to rely on a more physical presence. The best exchanges are between Hoffman's character and his bookie, but they are few and far between.

What's good? The story itself. The conflicted, chaotic rage you sense in Hoffman at all times. The movie looks good, and the casino shots are realistic when you take into consideration that the movie takes place in the early 80's and the casino is in Atlantic City.

Very little character development is illustrated (at the bank and in the personal home-life of Mahoney for examples), and any insight into the pathological condition exhibited by 'Mahoney' is done mostly through Hoffman's incredible acting. There's little imagery and even less detail with respect to the casino play.

For example: There's a scene in the movie where Mahoney is playing Craps. He's clearly on a great roll. He hits his point, and the whole table goes nuts. He's got a gazillion dollars worth of chips in front of him and then proceeds to roll a whole bunch of crap numbers before re-establishing a new point. He starts losing all his Pass Line bets because of the 2,3's and 12's he's rolling, but you don't see that.. you only hear it because of the dealers' chatter. So, people start leaving the table and the sense of the scene now is that the roll is done for and that Mahoney is going to go hit a horrible losing streak. Anyone who's ever played craps knows that this is utter nonsense. If you haven't played craps, or are not much of a casino patron, you will understand the essence of the scene either way, but be aware that it was a horrible and dishonest sell. Mahoney never made a monster Pass Line bet without hedging it on a prop bet. This wouldn't bother me so much if the movie hadn't been about casino gambling.

In any case, the movie's 'feel' is good, but the writing of the screenplay was just too weak in my view. I wish the movie would have given the audience some credit and made it a full 2 hours so to ensure that as much detail from the book could be adapted.

I also wish the DVD had some features that would have compenstated the viewer and ultimately, the consumer. Final verdict: I'd rent it at best.

Description of Owning Mahowny