We all have our private lives

On a scale from one to 100, Dan Mahowny (Philip Seymour Hoffman) rates the excitement he gets from gambling at a 100. The highest anything else gets is 20. In this is how the mind of the mild mannered Toronto bank clerk works, and it is the reasoning that underlies his life consuming addiction to gambling.

In Owning Mahony, Mahowny is an intriguing character full of nuances and complexities. Hoffman captures his compulsion beautifully, showing how he is able to play the part of a capable and well-liked bank clerk in his 'public life', when all the while he is thinking about his 'private life' -- placing bets and taking trips to Atlantic City, where he sits straight through the night, staring intently as money is won and lost, his fixated expression never changing.

However, if you met Dan, you would not think he even knew how casino games work. He wears large glasses, old suits, has a comb-over, and cares deeply about, of all things, banking. Because of his competence, the managers of his bank even promote him to be the youngest assistant bank manager the bank has ever seen, and trust him with million dollar accounts.

One Day, Dan's bookie, Frank Perlin (Maury Chakin) comes to collect and Dan is short. However, Perlin is compassionate man, for a sleazebag, and he just says that Dan can pay him back over time, but he is cut off from placing bets until then. This, however, is impossible for Dan, who goes back to the bank, and in a beautiful and compelling yet overly simple scene, proceeds to embezzle money from his bank, beginning a process that soon spirals far beyond his control.

During his late night trips to the casino, Dan catches the eye of the casino manager, Victor Foss, who proceeds to do everything possible to ensure that Dan will continue losing his money at Foss' casino. However, Dan is not interested in the women, prestige, or luxury that Foss offers; he just wants a seat at the table, and some barbecued ribs, with no sauce.

Dan also has a doting girlfriend named Belinda (played by Minnie Driver in a very unessential blond wig). She loves Dan, despite the fact that he often disappears for nights when he goes on gambling binges, and is so tired from them the next day that he can give her little attention.

Unfortunately, this relationship is the weakest part of the movie and very early on, we wonder why Belinda loves Dan. He is nice enough, and cracks the occasional joke, but his compulsive all night visits to the casino in Atlantic City and his resulting neglect seem enough to push anyone away. It is almost impossible to see how they ever got together. At one point Dan whisks Belinda away to Vegas -- she thinks they are getting married, he ditches her for a game of craps. Yet she sticks by him to the bitter end.

The best relationship that is highlighted in the film is the one between Dan and Foss. Night after night Foss watches Dan play until every chip is gone. Even when Dan has a run of luck that puts him up $9 million, he does not leave the table until it is gone again. Dan is Foss' best customer, yet there is a look of sadness in the casino manager's eyes when he watches the innocent victim of an addiction.

While there is lot going on in the movie -- a man dealing with a terrible addiction that is crippling his relationship and causing him to steal millions form his own workplace - there is not much in the way of action. As a result the film slides along at a sluggish pace. While the camera work is beautiful, there is only so long a person can spend watching a man gamble away his life, without becoming overly frustrated.

The film could be saved if the depth of Mahowny really came through and if his relationship with Belinda was less transparent and more realistic. However, the script spends far too much time on his secret life, on his money being thrown away, and we end up pitying Dan, but becoming sick of him.