Review

Review Date: 15-June-03
Spoiler Rating: High
Juju Judgment: Just OK

Owning Mahowny (2003)

Richard Kwietniowski's brilliant 1997 film "Love and Death on Long Island" chronicled the sad, strange consequences of a British writer's fascination with a Hollywood movie star (John Hurt in love with "90210"'s Jason Priestley and, yes, I did say brilliant). Although Kwietniowski's long overdue follow-up, "Owning Mahowny," is a very different movie, it continues to probe the theme of simple men succumbing to an unfortunate obsession. Starring Philip Seymour Hoffman as Dan Mahowny, the movie tells the true story of a Toronto banker who embezzled millions of dollars from his employer to finance a gambling addiction in the early 1980s. As a character study, "Owning Mahowny" falls a little flat, but as an indictment of the corrupt marriage of money and power that fuels all levels of our society, it's an interesting piece of work.

Although drawn from real life, none of the characters in "Owning Mahowny" is fully fleshed out, giving the movie a sort of clinical feel that precludes any strong emotional response. Hoffman delivers a solid performance, as always, but he's such a master at playing schlubs whose energies are focused on interior crises that he has become almost too distant, too removed from the reach of his viewers' compassion. (I know it's a rare talent that can convincingly express the emotional turmoil of the quiet man, but I prefer him in roles where he wears his passions and failings on the outside, as in "Flawless," "Almost Famous," and "Punch-Drunk Love.") Hoffman's Mahowny is so exclusively concerned with making payments to his bookie and his next trip to Atlantic City that he is almost devoid of personality. (Plus, he's a banker, so how exciting could he be?) In lieu of a back story to make him seem human, the movie relies on Hoffman's innate likability and the fact that Mahowny somehow managed to obtain the enduring devotion of a girlfriend, Belinda, whose character is poorly developed and similarly relies on the innate likability of actress Minnie Driver. While you never really lose interest in what happens to the leads, you can't help but wonder how a man like Mahowny advanced at the bank so quickly, what lured him to gambling in the first place, how he and Belinda got together, and why she never gave up on him. As for the supporting players, they are all awkwardly delineated by obvious and semi-comic personal quirks (e.g., Hurt as a heartless casino owner who hires and fires nice kids without compunction, Maury Chaykin as Mahowny's vain but genial bookie, and Ian Tracey as the donut-eating cop who brings him in).

But while the personal aspects of the story are missing from the film, the larger reflections to be derived from Dan Mahowny's downfall make up its main attraction. The bad guys here are the men whose lives are dictated by good, old fashioned greed and an egomaniacal lust for power --- in whose number Mahowny is not included, since he is clearly driven by a hunger for the act of gambling, not whatever riches or status he can gain by it. A player at the blackjack table but not at life, Mahowny lacks the one characteristic that marks the truly greedy: an insatiable drive for wealth as a means to transcend the normal order and become superior over others. A parallel is drawn between the honchos at Mahowny's bank, who bluster and cajole to suck the most out of their wealthy clients, and the casino managers, who engage in excessive fawning and back door maneuvering to keep the high rollers under their roof. The movie suggests that much of the world is run by men such as this, whose business is the manipulation of the desires and compulsions that make weaker people not ruthless, just out of control. At all times, but particularly the ones in which we're living, this can be a worthwhile (if distressing) notion to discuss or contemplate. "Owning Mahowny" can thus be said to shed some light on the nature and flaws of capitalism, if not of its protagonist.

Copyright © 2003 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.