70
Metascore
29 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertThere have been many good movies about gambling, but never one that so single-mindedly shows the gambler at his task.
- 80Washington PostMichael O'SullivanWashington PostMichael O'SullivanAs channeled by the extraordinary Hoffman, Dan Mahowny is less a freak than a nerve-deadened Everyman with the courage to search for something that makes him feel alive.
- 75Portland OregonianKim MorganPortland OregonianKim MorganOwning Mahowny may at times feel futile in its colorless, disheartening subject matter, but that's the point -- to see how barren Mahowny's life becomes. Hoffman gives the film relevance.
- 75PremiereGlenn KennyPremiereGlenn KennyAt its best, Mahowny is intricate, engrossing, wryly funny, and strangely poetic.
- 75Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaPhiladelphia InquirerSteven ReaAn unflashy but fascinating meditation on addiction and greed. The junkie was clearly Mahowny, but the greed, in a way, was everybody else's: the bankers', their flush clientele's, and the casinos', all busy feeding his habit.
- 70Los Angeles TimesKevin ThomasLos Angeles TimesKevin ThomasKwietniowski might have tried for some edginess that would express a measure of the excitement Mahowny is experiencing. Despite the driven intensity of the banker, the film threatens to slip into the lifelessness of the drab world it depicts.
- 63USA TodayClaudia PuigUSA TodayClaudia PuigThere are some effectively suspenseful moments in the movie, particularly during the gambling sequences, but one longs for more context and probing into the psyche of an ordinary man with an extraordinary compulsion.
- 60Dallas ObserverLuke Y. ThompsonDallas ObserverLuke Y. ThompsonThere could have been life in the material, but no one involved save Hurt and Collins seems to have taken the time to find it.
- 60SalonStephanie ZacharekSalonStephanie ZacharekJust doesn't give us enough to hold onto, perhaps partly because it's executed with so much restraint and subtlety. It's often a tense, uncomfortable little movie.
- 50TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonaghTV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonaghIronically, it's most engaging when the focus shifts to Hurt's matter-of-factly amoral enabler, whose glistening suits and jewel-colored shirt-and-tie combinations suggest a particularly poisonous tropical reptile.