Owning Mahowny
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: May 2, 2003 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
70
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 29 Critic Reviews
Positive:
22
Mixed:
7
Negative:
0
Watch Now
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
There have been many good movies about gambling, but never one that so single-mindedly shows the gambler at his task. Read full review
100
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
In the acting department, there's nobody on the current scene with more sheer talent --- or offbeat charisma -- than Philip Seymour Hoffman, in whose bearish body nestles the heart of a lithe and limber artist. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Hoffman plays Dan Mahowny's addiction to instant money as something dirty and private and, at the same time, soul-quickening. Read full review
88
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)John Bentley Mays
Unusual, as such movies go, in its disregard for busy theatricality. Read full review
80
Washington PostMichael O'Sullivan
As 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. Read full review
80
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
Kwietniowski has managed to create a surprisingly engrossing and suspenseful narrative without resorting to cosmetics, melodrama or hype. Read full review
80
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Kwietniowski follows up his impressive debut feature, "Love and Death on Long Island," with this equally absorbing study of a compulsive personality. Read full review
80
L.A. WeeklyJohn Powers
Atlantic City casino boss played with pointedly corrupt amusement by John Hurt, doesn't merely oversee hell but gets a real kick out of the damned. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
The situation is not too far removed from that of Jayson Blair and The New York Times. The corporate oversight in place to catch deceptions is lulled into becoming part of the deception. Mahowny wanders through this film as if waiting to get caught, forced into deeper gambling debt because no one applies any brakes. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianKim Morgan
Owning 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. Read full review
75
PremiereGlenn Kenny
At its best, Mahowny is intricate, engrossing, wryly funny, and strangely poetic. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
An 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. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
A fascinating fact-based portrait of a gambling addict. Read full review
75
Baltimore SunChris Kaltenbach
This may be the quietest addict ever to hit movie screens, as well the most disturbing. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneRobert K. Elder
Kwietniowski turns up the tension so incrementally, we don't realize the scope of Mahowny's moral wreck until it is too late. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
Kwietniowski 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. Read full review
70
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
Owning Mahowny shares the earlier ("Love and Death on Long Island") film's crisp precision, but it's a far more rigorously sublimated and abstract account of l'amour fou. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
Hoffman has his specialty, though, and it’s not inappropriate here: He always looks supersmart and yet his reactions to what goes on around him are superslow. Read full review
70
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
Another actor might not have been able to carry the film, given such a creepily monomaniacal character, but Hoffman lets the humanity soak through, registering split seconds of panic when he's on the verge of getting caught, then just as quickly creating and working a new plan. Read full review
63
USA TodayClaudia Puig
There 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. Read full review
63
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
Hoffman is a fine actor in a rut, working on a string of socially alienated characters who are variations on the same theme. That's too bad, because the story being told around his static presence is amazing. Read full review
63
New York PostLou Lumenick
Hurt, who starred in Kwietniowski's earlier study in compulsion, "Life and Death on Long Island," is oily perfection as the devious Victor. Read full review
60
Dallas ObserverLuke Y. Thompson
There could have been life in the material, but no one involved save Hurt and Collins seems to have taken the time to find it. Read full review
60
SalonStephanie Zacharek
Just 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. Read full review
60
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
Whatever minor entertainment there is to be gleaned from Mahowny -- set in the early 1980's, mostly in Toronto -- comes in bits and pieces. Read full review
58
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
After its irresistible first act, Owning Mahowny loses its energy and focus very fast. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
Ironically, 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. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy Burr
Hoffman confessed he was drawn to the role because ''this was a guy who didn't know how to feel, and I found that fascinating.'' His challenge is our frustration Read full review
50
VarietyDavid Rooney
Philip Seymour Hoffman and John Hurt give compelling performances... But the coldly unrewarding drama is as distant and joyless as its protagonist, representing a disappointment for director Richard Kwietniowski. Read full review
More From This Movie

70 Critic Reviews

7.1 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 71 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL