Two For the Money
| Year: | 2005 |
| Studio: | Universal |
| Director: | D J Caruso |
| Cast: | Al Pacino, Matthew McConaughey, Rene Russo, Armand Assante, Jemery Piven, Jaime King |
A better cast than a movie. McConaghuey and Pacino make a very charismatic team and put much more into the characters than is on the page and the film has a lot of style, but in the end it can't rise above the limitations of a fairly pedestrian story.
McConaghuey is a former footballer with a gift for picking winners. He joins Pacino's sports betting business and proceeds to drive it to the top of its game by enriching some very happy clients.
But it's a morality take full of nuggets of wisdom about the lot of a gambler and the psychology of being addicted to the win (and loss).
They're delivered via a secondary character who wins and then loses everything, the guilt for which McConaghuey's character has to shoulder as he feels increasingly like he's selling his soul. Pacino is also given the stage, in a monologue on the nature of the film's topic that's almost a trademark of his.
McConaghuey is a former footballer with a gift for picking winners. He joins Pacino's sports betting business and proceeds to drive it to the top of its game by enriching some very happy clients.
But it's a morality take full of nuggets of wisdom about the lot of a gambler and the psychology of being addicted to the win (and loss).
They're delivered via a secondary character who wins and then loses everything, the guilt for which McConaghuey's character has to shoulder as he feels increasingly like he's selling his soul. Pacino is also given the stage, in a monologue on the nature of the film's topic that's almost a trademark of his.