Director:  Richard Kwietniowski		Released:  May 2003
Writer:  Maurice Chauvet, from Gary Stephen Ross' book		MPAA Rating:  R
Players:  Philip Seymour Hoffman, Minnie Driver, John Hurt, Maury Chaykin		Running time:  104 minutes

The thing I like most about this film is the portrayal of gambling as a true addiction.  It doesn't matter to the gambler if he wins or loses.  I mean, it does, because the high comes from winning big and/or losing big, but an addicted gambler will play and play until he can't play anymore.  And if he can't play anymore, that means he ran out of money.  Like a drug addiction, the money is not important, the only important thing is to be able to play again.  Owning Mahowny does an excellent job of demonstrating that.

The second thing this film does well is show how such an addiction affects the people around you.  You can only hide something like that for so long before people notice your strange behaviors.  Minnie Driver's character takes the brunt of the devastation.

I watched this film because Philip Seymour Hoffman was in it; didn't know anything about it.  He's a great - yet uncelebrated - modern actor.  You can hardly go wrong by choosing any one of his movies.  So it follows logically that he's great in this picture too.  He's intense, unflinching, virtually emotionless, and a little nerdy.  Perfect for this role.

In an early scene, when he arrives in Atlantic City he is shuffled out of the way by security as they usher a high-roller into the casino.  Later, it is he who is being escorted, shuffling the other patrons out of his way.  It's smartly done, and I like that.

- crocoPuffs

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