 |
Friday, October 7, 2005
Moral lesson loses the bet in gambling story
The gambling drama, "Two for the Money," has a good cast, a lot of New York flash and color and half an eye on the 1961 classic "The Hustler." Yet it never quite adds up to anything. It's engaging enough while it's going on, but has little visceral impact or resonance.
 | MOVIE REVIEW | ||
| |||
View all photosMatthew McConaughey plays Brandon Lang, a former college football star who, after an injury ends his hopes of a pro career, puts his sports expertise to use working for a sweatshoplike, Las Vegas 900 number that picks potential winners of athletic contests.
He proves to be such an uncanny prophet -- he's right more than 80 percent of the time -- that he's soon recruited by a top New York sports-betting agency, where he comes under the wing of Walter Abrams (Al Pacino), its slovenly flamboyant, old-pro boss.
Walter gives Brandon a new image, teaches him the ins and outs of the $200 billion-a-year sports-betting biz, and watches as his protege becomes the phenomenon of the industry. But, as a character reminds Brandon midway through the movie, "The gambling gods are fickle."
It sounds like fun, and it often is. The production values are striking, the high-tech Damon Runyon world of modern sports gambling comes alive and McConaughey is charismatic and convincing as a Fast Eddie who takes a roller-coaster ride through it.
And, of course, Pacino is such an iconic, endlessly inventive movie actor that he'd be riveting in a film version of the Yellow Pages. His rages are hypnotic, his fatherly affection for Brandon is palpable and his performance is all pleasure.
But, beneath its fire, this movie fails to be a devastating, or even coherent, moral drama. At the fade-out, it's hard to figure out what Brandon's moral lesson is, other than that gambling is bad and it's dangerous to get cocky.
No doubt, a large part of the problem is in the script. But coming on the heels of director D.J. Caruso's two previous features ("The Salton Sea" and "Taking Lives"), its frustrating style over substance also seems to be very much in the man's career pattern.
My web site
My Yahoo!
Google
· On DVD: 'Penelope'
· Bruce Lee: His legacy lives
· AMC opening Northwest's first all-digital cineplex at Southcenter
· 48 hours of moviemaking is a success for Team Juicebox
· 'Mamma Mia!' is big fat Greek wedding
· Quality of jokes lost in space on apes' bland mission to Malgor
· French director creates few sparks with 'The Last Mistress'
· DVDs: 'Shutter'
· Parents Film Guide
· Seattle Movie Events
· Limited Movie Runs
· 'Dark Knight:' Latest 'Batman' movie raises the bar
more· Midnight stampede to 'The Dark Knight' sets record
· Milo Ventimiglia discusses 'Heroes,' Mideast trip
· Ledger's compelling Joker thrills, saddens fans
· Salma Hayek, Pinault call off their engagement
· SAG stakes fight on made-for-Internet content
more
101 Elliott Ave. W.
Seattle, WA 98119
(206) 448-8000
Home Delivery: (206) 464-2121 or (800) 542-0820
seattlepi.com serves about 1.7 million unique visitors
and 30 million page views each month.
Send comments to newmedia@seattlepi.com
Send investigative tips to iteam@seattlepi.com
©1996-2008 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Terms of Use/Privacy Policy
