I'll pretty much watch anything he's in. I think of his last 15movies, i've missed 2. So when i noticed Owning Mahowny on indiemoviesonline.com, it was a great opportunity to catch up with Phil, who taken a bit of a break it would seem in 2009/2010 (probably to make his directorial début Jack Goes Boating.)
I had heard of this movie, where Hoffman plays a bank manager with a gambling addiction but it never was properly distributed in this country, which can be the way it goes sadly...
I think there's a great movie in Owning Mahowny but it's only 10-15mins, not a 100.
Hoffman is utterly believable as a man with a horrific gambling problem. A man never satisfied with a win because it's never. Ever. Enough. Gambling can absolutely be an addiction in the same breadth as heroin,crack or meth- perhaps even more insidious than those because you'd probably never notice a physical change. I don't think Hoffman ever cracks a smile in this film and if he does it's only to keep up appearances to his girlfriend, played by, Minnie Driver. I don't think i've ever seen anyone so unhappy on film, at least never a character, who hasn't experienced direct human loss like Hoffman is doing here.
BUT this is all well and good for the showreel of Philip Seymour Hoffman but unfortunately this won't make for a feature-length film. Since i knew this was a true story, i knew it wouldn't end well- if it had and Mahowny had recouped his losses, it wouldn't have made the news but in the broad sense, when you have a problem that bad, you won't stop until someone intervenes and people don't intervene when you're winning.
I think an important part of the gambling-genre movie is vicariously enjoying through the protagonist, them buying unattainable shit or living the high life but i'm not blind enough to see that director, Richard Kwietniowski is trying to show that bad gamblers don't care about that. Mahowny doesn't care about girls or having nice things or drugs. To him, gambling is the ultimate drug. There could never be anything as potent to him, as fighting to outsmart the odds. He doesn't even care about what he's betting on, it's just the process. Gambling for the addicted is total foreplay because the high is just before the finish, not after it. So gambling can be truly exhilarating but it's no spectator's sport.
I guess it could be... Like I say, with excesses of girls and living well, but Kwietniowski is so set on showing Mahowny's focus on gambling that he's made no room for anything else.
The girlfriend (Minnie Driver) has nothing to do because of that. I get it; he doesn't care about her but that also means there's no tension when he's in threat of losing her.
So if he's playing with other peoples money, has no emotional ties and gambling's all he cares about, effectively meaning he has nothing to lose- how can you make gambling dramatic if there's nothing at stake?
I watched Owning Mahowny on indiemoviesonline.com, a great resource of free movies.
My 2011 in Movies will return with 127Hours (2010)....
I think there's a great movie in Owning Mahowny but it's only 10-15mins, not a 100.
Hoffman is utterly believable as a man with a horrific gambling problem. A man never satisfied with a win because it's never. Ever. Enough. Gambling can absolutely be an addiction in the same breadth as heroin,crack or meth- perhaps even more insidious than those because you'd probably never notice a physical change. I don't think Hoffman ever cracks a smile in this film and if he does it's only to keep up appearances to his girlfriend, played by, Minnie Driver. I don't think i've ever seen anyone so unhappy on film, at least never a character, who hasn't experienced direct human loss like Hoffman is doing here.
BUT this is all well and good for the showreel of Philip Seymour Hoffman but unfortunately this won't make for a feature-length film. Since i knew this was a true story, i knew it wouldn't end well- if it had and Mahowny had recouped his losses, it wouldn't have made the news but in the broad sense, when you have a problem that bad, you won't stop until someone intervenes and people don't intervene when you're winning.
I think an important part of the gambling-genre movie is vicariously enjoying through the protagonist, them buying unattainable shit or living the high life but i'm not blind enough to see that director, Richard Kwietniowski is trying to show that bad gamblers don't care about that. Mahowny doesn't care about girls or having nice things or drugs. To him, gambling is the ultimate drug. There could never be anything as potent to him, as fighting to outsmart the odds. He doesn't even care about what he's betting on, it's just the process. Gambling for the addicted is total foreplay because the high is just before the finish, not after it. So gambling can be truly exhilarating but it's no spectator's sport.
I guess it could be... Like I say, with excesses of girls and living well, but Kwietniowski is so set on showing Mahowny's focus on gambling that he's made no room for anything else.
The girlfriend (Minnie Driver) has nothing to do because of that. I get it; he doesn't care about her but that also means there's no tension when he's in threat of losing her.
So if he's playing with other peoples money, has no emotional ties and gambling's all he cares about, effectively meaning he has nothing to lose- how can you make gambling dramatic if there's nothing at stake?
I watched Owning Mahowny on indiemoviesonline.com, a great resource of free movies.
My 2011 in Movies will return with 127Hours (2010)....
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