Connect with us

Home Entertainment

Home Entertainment: ‘Owning Mahowny’ Retro Review

One of Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s lesser-known features is actually worth seeking out if you’re able to find it. Owning Mahowny didn’t get a huge release back in 2003, but this absorbing if sometimes depressing plodder is a near-perfect examination of the world of gambling addiction, and one not easily matched for its authenticity.

Hoffman is the title character Dan Mahowny, a thirty-something Toronto native who is on the up professionally. He’s just received a promotion to assistant manager at a downtown bank, but he’s harbouring a secret to all around him – he has a very bad gambling problem. What starts off as a small debt owed to a couple of small-time bookies, soon escalates into a greater issue when they turn down a line of advance credit. Using money obtained fraudulently at his place of work, Mahowny takes his business elsewhere and begins to gamble at a local casino – hitting the blackjack and craps tables hard – often for large amounts of money, which is definitely not his. The casino sees a weakness in Mahowny’s character, and boss Victor (John Hurt) encourages his new customer to gamble more and more. Soon the missing money becomes harder to hide, and Mahowney’s world slowly starts to spiral even more out of control.

Adapted from the book Stung, which focussed on the gambling addictions of Brian Molony, a trusted banker for The Bank of Canada in Toronto, Owning Mahowny changes both the protagonist’s name but keeps the basis for the narrative and the true events on which it is based the same. It’s a remarkable story made utterly engrossing by Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s jaw-dropping, sensational performance as the drowning Mahowny. The late actor impressed prior to this with remarkable turns in the likes of Boogie Nights, The Talented Mr Ripley and Flawless, but Owning Mahoney gave him one of his first lead roles and the opportunity to shine. And shine he does, constantly giving the viewer glimpses of what he would achieve over the following decade, right up until the time of his untimely death in 2014.

Minnie Driver also gives a wonderful turn as Mahowny’s loyal but suffering girlfriend Belinda, while Hurt is also as reliable as ever as Victor, even if his screen time is more limited.

British-born director Richard Kwietniowki only directed one more film following Owning Mahoney, 2011’s Regret Not Speaking, which also starred John Hurt, but this lost-gem from a decade and a half ago really showed a lot of promise for the filmmaker. It’s a slow-burning affair, but one which always engrosses and surprises – purely because of the baffling true story that plays out over its 100-minute running time.

A film which absolutely shows off the dangers of excessive gambling and addiction in general – one absolutely worth seeking out if it plays on a screen near you – big or small – anytime soon – if only to witness the top-notch work on display from two dearly missed thespians whose talent continues to shine.

Owning Mahowny is available on U.S. DVD.

Latest Posts

More in Home Entertainment