Excellent, edgey, and well worth seeing

Rating: 8/10 (23 October 2005)

"Two for the Money" stars Al Pacino in a textbook Pacino performance as Walter Abrams, a mid-level New York City sports book "tout" and gambling maven with a gambling addiction. Married to Toni Morrow Abrams (played with finesse and depth by Rene Russo), Walter finds an amazing picker of winners of sports games (specifically football) in Brandon Lang, played by Matthew McConaughey, a former college football star injured in his final college game. Lang's ability to pick winners is based on his deep, nearly mystical understanding of football and its players. Offered a job in NYC, Lang moves into Abrams sprawling townhouse and quickly establishes himself as a superstar picker, and Abrams, quick to see the profit, builds an empire around Lang. What happens after that should be left unwritten, as this 2005 film is well worth seeing for its edgey, yet touching portrayal of characters caught up in gambling, greed, but with a family dynamic that can only be called love.
Abrams views Lang as more that just his best employee. We get a sense that Abrams honestly takes Lang under his wing, grooming him to become "John Anthony", superstar sports picker. In this sense, a little like "Pretty Woman", Abrams changes Lang into Anthony. Along the way, we find out that Abrams has a bad heart, an ailing "ticker" that causes him to worry that he'll live another year even as he lights up another cigarette behind the caring, and disapproving eye of Toni. This fear, for his wife and his family's future, leads him to introduce Lang/Anthony to Toni, and we get a very real sense that Lang falls in love with Toni even as he accepts Walter's tutelage. We are left to wonder, "if Walter dies, does Brandon marry the much-older Toni?" And yet, like a real father-son relationship, there is overt and subtle competition between the wiley, cunning, yet fatherly (if being crazy can be considered "fatherly") Walter and Brandon. Is Brandon conning Walter? Walter certainly decides to test Brandon, with Toni as part of this extremely complicated love triangle.
The film isn't specifically sexual, but it deals with polyamorous themes where the "amorous" aspect is more important, perhaps, then simple sexual escapades. Along the way, we learn the true meaning of these individual's lives, where they come from, and most importantly - where they are going. Highly recommended for outstanding performances by Oscar winners (and likely candidates for this film) Al Pacino and Rene Russo, and McConaughey, in one of his best roles yet, delivers his laconic Austin-tinged acting with a new, harder edge. This film is not appropriate for children or teenagers, not because it is violent or too sexual (its not), but because the complicated story and in-depth character studies are likely to go over the heads of most, but certainly not all, teenagers. This film is about addictions, love, a man's drive to provide for his family, a woman's unconditional love for her man, a father-son relationship (albeit off-beat and at times dysfunctional), and much more. With themes as old as Shakespeare and, at times, as basic as Pygmalion, "Two for the Money" is one of the year's best commercial films.