Owning Mahowny (2003) 
crime drama
directed by : Richard Kwietniowski
featuring : Philip Seymour Hoffman - Minnie Driver - Maury Chaykin - John Hunt - Sonia Smits
running time : 1 hour 44 minutes 
A seemingly ordinary bank employee develops an obsession that could destroy his life and that of those around him in this drama. Dan Mahowney (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is a quiet, unassuming employee of a bank in Toronto; he lives modestly, drives a used car, and is dating one of the bank's tellers, a sweet but mousy girl named Belinda (Minnie Driver). What no one knows is that Dan has a secret life Dan is a compulsive gambler, and after running up massive debts with his bookie Frank Perlin (Maury Chaykin), he begins making regular visits to Atlantic City in the United States, where he often bets (and loses) far beyond his means. Dan's expertise at the bank is rewarded with a promotion to assistant manager; his new responsibilities include approving loans, which gives him the authority to transfer funds in and out of the bank. Needing to cover his debts, Dan starts approving loans to non-existent clients and adding hundreds of thousands of dollars to other accounts, and Victor Fox) (John Hunt), manager of Dan's favorite Atlantic City casino, is more than happy to "help" Dan, comping him to luxury suites and all the attendant amenities and working with him to transfer bank funds into his casino account. As Dan's debts begin to grow into the seven figure range, his dealings become harder to hide, both from the authorities and from Belinda, who has become aware of Dan's addiction to gambling but doesn't know just how far it's grown. Based on a true story, Owning Mahowny was directed by Richard Kwietniowski who previously worked with John Hunt in the acclaimed Love And Death On Long Island.

The good news is that Hoffman turns in a highly disciplined and unwaveringly honest performance as Brian Mahowny. He doesn't step out of character to milk sympathy from the audience, doesn't chew the scenery to draw attention to his acting, and never suggests that he looks down on the character that he's playing. He's so true to the character's obsessive nature that sometimes he won't look up to make eye contact with others when he gambles. The bad news, however, is the same as the good news: Hoffman's performance remains doggedly true to a character that isn't particularly appealing or exciting. As presented in the film, Mahowny is unassuming, doesn't have a lot of endearing qualities, and is so obsessive that he rarely seems to be enjoying himself even when he's winning. Furthermore, Driver's role as his neglected girlfriend Belinda doesn't enable the audience to see Mahowny's finer qualities through someone else's eyes; we never find out what she sees in him and she isn't sufficiently developed as a character to arose much interest in her side of the story. Chaykin is able to put some life into his performance as Mahowny's bookie and Hurt seems to be having a grand old time as an opportunistic casino manager, which helps perk up the movie. Also, the filmmakers do a good job of stripping the movie of personal warmth and making things look drab or gauche. Like Hoffman's performance, this is good because it's true to the spirit of the film, but it doesn't necessarily make the movie very exciting. Owning Mahowny is a reasonably interesting story, even though the screenplay doesn't contain a lot of surprising moments; however, the filmmakers don't offer a lot of insight into the characters or enough clever twists to liven up the film.