"Jerry Maguire" meets "Wall Street" by way of "Boiler Room"

Rating: 6/10 (10 October 2005)

TWO FOR THE MONEY (2005) ** Al Pacino, Matthew McConaughey, Rene Russo, Armand Assante, Jeremy Piven, Jaime King. (Dir: DJ Caruso)
"Jerry Maguire" meets "Wall Street" by way of "Boiler Room"
Matthew McConaughey usually plays against his good ol' Texas country boy with aplomb and charisma but in his latest leading-man turn downplays that with deploying his cornpone good naturedess to the stressing point of credibility in this cross of "Jerry Maguire" meeting "Wall Street" by way of "Boiler Room" in this drama centering on sports betting cum morality play.
Cast as a former football hopeful whose dreams were crushed by a nasty on field injury, Brandon Lang settles for cold-calling telemarketing scams that lead to brighter days when his knack for picking wins for professional sports, namely football (both college AND pro) catches the eye of hugely successful Brooklyn based numbers runner Walter Abrams (Pacino chomping at the bit in a juicy, bombastic turn) who woos the young turk to turn to the dark side by joining his team of bettors which leads Lang to become a hot shot with the unlikely sobriquet of "John Anthony", an alias Abrams creates for his golden goose.
Abrams is an alleged Gambling Anonymous survivor who claims he hasn't made a professional bet in 18 years (yet is running an on the cusp of illegal gambling business) promise to his skeptical gorgeous wife Toni Morrow (the always welcome beauty Russo) who is wise to her loving husband and father to their little girl yet is wary about the corruption of his latest conquest in the form of the highly naïve Lang who claims he doesn't even bet on his picks (yet has no qualms in basking in the quick ascending glory of his new pricey digs and fast lifestyle).
The film's main fallacy is that it is very predictable and that Lang cannot be that believable in being so gullible to the surrounding he's found himself trapped in and Abrams' true colors come out about the half-way mark where most films would have the protagonist questioning his morality when Lang instead continues to literally gamble his good senses for a huge fall to come: it's all in the matter of timing. The jerry-rigged script by scribe Dan Gilroy (whose last known credit was the god awful "Chasers" in 1994) allegedly based on a true story is marred by Caruso's ham fisted direction (he's responsible for the ludicrous Angelina Jolie serial killer junk flick "Taking Lives" last year) that has no grace or subtlety despite the fine acting by his leads. McConaughey effortlessly allows his IQ to take a beating for his not-too-swift character that finally grows a brain in the ridiculously paced final act (the trite edit of a on-the-line football game's last play with a face off between Pacino and Russo's marriage-on-the-brink confrontation is head-shakingly bad). Pacino meanwhile shifts from his garrulous full-of-vigor shark in lamb's clothing to Mamet echoes of his "Glengarry Glen Ross" Rick Roma in a show-stopping soliloquy at a Gamblers Anonymous meeting about the nature of losing is fun in its grandiosity; intensity like his should be bottled. Russo acquits herself nicely as she usually does by making her former addict survivor a resolve of understanding to a fault.
What is unremarkable is just how familiar and easy to figure-down-the-line as to what will eventually happen ultimately is the biggest gambit and cheat for the audience. One only wishes the filmmakers had paid closer attention to the snappy chemistry between its leads that could've made this a "Hustler" type of fable.