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Two For The Money film review
TWO FOR THE MONEY
Running time: 123 mins
Starring: Al Pacino, Matthew McConaughey, Rene Russo
This has been the decade of gambling with the massive surge in popularity of poker, spreadbetting and online bookies willing to accept bets on just about anything. So what better time for a big Hollywood film to embrace this contemporary craze: the thinking being that surely there must be enough punters out there who want to spend their hard-earned cash on seeing a version of their own story up on the big screen. Right?
Wrong. Two for the Money is a melancholy mess of a film, and even astute investors would be better off spending their ticket money by sticking a pin in a racecard. Even if they lost, they'd be guaranteed more enjoyment. It's the latest in an uneasy trend of film which claims to be 'inspired by true events', a moniker that is usually the sign of a desperate producer trying to add some kudos to his work. It's also the latest in a worrying series of Al Pacino duds - who can honestly remember seeing People I Know, The Recruit, S1m0ne and Gigli? All films he has made in the last five years, and all films which sank without a trace. One of the world's leading actors seems destined to spend his dotage in material that is way below his considerable talent.
Matthew McConaughey stars as Brandon Lang, a former college football star whose career ends when his ligaments are torn during a Championship match. Being a Vegas resident, Brandon naturally turns towards the city's employment mainstay and is soon working as a tipster for a pricey phone-betting advisory service. He turns out to be a natural, and his ability to pick winners soon comes to the attention of Walter Abrams (Pacino), a hotshot New Yorker who specializes in selling betting advice to the wealthy.
Hotfooting it to New York, Brandon becomes the star of the show as his ability to pick football winners makes himself and his clients millions of dollars. But inevitably he becomes seduced by the lifestyle, the women (not least Walter's wife Toni, played by Rene Russo and the real-life wife of director DJ Caruso), and by his own innate ability to pick. He loses more and more until the final game of the season, the Superbowl, offers him one final chance at redemption.
There are a couple of good scenes and themes in Two for the Money, notably involving Pacino's attendance at a Gamblers' Anonymous meeting, and one of Brandon's clients who goes from rags to riches to rags on the strength of the tips he receives. These highlight what potentially might have been a fascinating and moving story but are ignored in favour of a glossy and unrealistic treatment. Anyone with even the slightest knowledge or interest in gambling will throw their arms up in despair, while the unsuspecting cinemagoer may well wonder what it is exactly that they have just seen.
Director DJ Caruso - who won plaudits for his 2001 offering The Salton Sea - tells his story in a confusing and sloppy manner, although to be fair to him it looks as though the film was edited to death. At over two hours, however, another thirty minutes could easily have been chopped off to spare the real innocent victims of this whole farrago, namely anyone who is unfortunate enough to pay to sit and watch it.
Paul Hurley
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