“Two For the Money” (Universal Pictures)
Al Pacino, Matthew McConaughey and Rene Russo star in the new film “Two For the Money.” This is a drama about the little known world of sports betting. Pacino is his usual hyper self and Russo looks too thin for her own good, but McConaughey is in top shape and gives his best performance to date.
McConaughey plays Brandon Lang, a football player who suffers a leg injury. He has hopes of a comeback but in the meantime he makes sports predictions on a 900 number. His amazing record at being able to predict the winners gets the attention of Walter Abrams (Pacino), a man who is in the business of sports betting big time.
Abrams flies Lang from Las Vegas to New York and sets him up in an apartment/office space and lets him work his magic. Abrams is a reformed gambler and his wife Toni (Russo) is a reformed drug addict. They have managed to clean up their lives and live in comfort with their six-year-old daughter.
Still for Walter the fear of failure is the high he seeks and this leads him to take rash actions with Lang’s predictions. He sells his services to a Mafia kingpin (Armand Assante) who doesn’t take it very kindly when his bets don’t all pay off.
The film is exciting and watchable but not very understandable. We enjoy watching Walter, Brandon and Toni go through the adventures of their lives but we are never clear as to what motivates them. They are fascinating creatures but enigmatic ones as well.
Pacino seems stuck in roles which allow him to rant and rave to his heart’s content. In this film he has a scene at a “gamblers anonymous” meeting that allows him to launch into a diatribe about the evils of gambling. This scene allows him to show his acting skills but it is a little redundant as we have seen him do something like this in just about all of his most recent films.
Rene Russo has not been seen on screen since 2002’s “Big Trouble.” She must have spent that time losing weight, as she now looks almost emaciated. She is a warm, talented actress and it is good to have her back – but start eating, Rene.
McConaughey has the role of Brandon down to perfection. He is sleek and shiny in the role and matches Pacino talent for talent in their scenes together. He is an actor who does not need to carry the whole load of a film. Give him some solid co-stars to play off of and he is a much better performer.
Jeremy Piven, one of my favorite young character actors, has a small role as one of Brandon’s competitors at the office. It is a small role with no payoff; his part just fades out of the film.
The movie is rated R for endless profanity and violence.
“Two For the Money” is a glossy film with good actors but little substance. Once the film is over and you reflect back on what you have seen the plot just doesn’t hold up. So know you can enjoy it while you are watching it but don’t expect the plot to hold up on reflection.
I scored “Two For the Money” a 4 for the show out of 10.
