Owning Mahowny

REVIEW
Hoffman shines in this true tale about the fall of Dan Mahowny, a Toronto bank manager who taps company coffers to feed a gambling addiction. His savvy of the system is absent on visits to Atlantic City, where a persistence for beating the odds leaves him sleepless and ever deeper in the red. Wife Belinda (Driver) offers dubious support of her husband, as further signs of his vice come to light. We share Mahowny’s pallor as mammoth sums are frittered away. Soon revealed is the quiet torment of a man capable of little judgment and even fewer emotions. The film is well-nuanced with the gaming industry's phony hospitality -- even the casino manager can manage to personally hand Mahowny his cold spare ribs and coke to go, wishing him farewell after losing 9 million. But all of this dour weight yields little clues toward what is behind Mahoney's compulsions, as the film hits a slow stride. However, the pathetic complexity of Hoffman's portrayal compensates for the story's uneven patches.