A Good Movie with a Very Heavy Side

Rating: 8/10 (10 October 2005)

This is a good film. The depth of feeling is wonderful. And, though I think it might have been slightly miscast, the acting is terrific. As a whole the film is entirely enjoyable.
It's hard to put my finger on any casting flaws with such strong actors, but I had to justify taking points off, and I figured I'd get my quasi-criticism out of the way. One of the clearer casting flaws is Piven, who, though wonderful as always, plays a character who is entirely loathsome - as opposed to his usual partially-loathsome-but-still-entirely-endearing. It's hard to hate him in general, but impossible not to hate him in this particular role. I hate hating Jeremy Piven.
Like I said, everyone is good; but Russo is the only one whose dead-on; she's perfectly cast, and her role was flawlessly acted. The few tidbits regarding her character's past fit perfectly with the look and feel Russo provides for film.
McConaughey is solid; and is entirely believable as an athlete turned sleezy-salesman. The three demands on his character - namely his need to be 'a winner', his slight gullibility, and his ascetic drive slash moral foundation - are well met by his acting.
Finally Pacino  who's always good, of course. I know I'll get criticism for this, but this might be his most challenging role. I think it's the most complex. He's essentially playing the main character, who is at the same time not the main character  which is interesting and difficult in itself. If you love Pacino, and you love movies - a common tandem -; but moreover if you enjoy and actors effort as much as his/her success, you will love Pacino's here.
His role is not really about gambling; nor is it about making money; or satisfying his ego, at least not on a wholly personal level. Its about facing all the demons that come with being a 'family man'  a father, a husband, an aging provider  I.e., facing one's own adequacy reflected back; controlling one's vices for the sake of other people; the inevitable confrontation with mortality, and whether you will respond selfishly or altruistically to this confrontation; its about the need to secure a good life for you wife and child; to create for them what you never had; to leave them in safety at the end.
Pacino is not a man bent on monetary success here. He's a sick, sick man who knows he won't live much longer  a fact which almost seems like a dead end in the film. He needs tp pick someone to replace him. He picks winners for a living, and he is hoping that by picking McConaughey's character he is picking a winner for his family - someone he can, as he says, 'build an empire around'. The big question that haunts the final years of every great emperor is, 'Who will take my place and carry on my work?'. And to pick a winner - an heir - he applies the only method he knows: the gamble. He literally calls a 1-900 number to find the guy he wants to place his bet on.
Pacino in a role with this much depth is all a movie-lover can ask for. Even though I'm not sure Pacino, or the movie as a whole, succeeds 100 percent, the courageous and well considered attempt is just as enjoyable. I'll have to - and want to - see the movie again; and if nothing else, that alone qualifies it as a success.
Plus Armand Assante is just cool.