Owning Mahowny
Length: 1 hour, 37 minutes
Studio: Sony Classics
Release Date: 2003-09-12
Cast: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Minnie Driver, John Hunt, Maury Chakin
Director: Richard Kwietniowski
Screenwriter: Maurice Chauvet, Gary Stephen Ross
WorkNameSort: Owning Mahowny
Our Rating: 3.50
Or, Meet Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Forehead. The pliable actor spends an inordinate amount of time looking downward to convey the shamed helplessness of Dan Mahowny, an assistant manager at a Toronto bank who bilks his employer for millions to finance a crushing gambling debt. The movie refuses to sex up the reality-based material, maintaining a pace that’s as slow and ruminative as possible. But the human element (including Minnie Driver’s turn as Mahowny’s mousy love interest) is compelling, and the script makes a clever case that every form of personal security — from love to solvency — is just a game of chance.
This article appears in Sep 10-16, 2003.