Owning Mahowny

Nobody plays shlubby, quiet desperation quite like Hoffman, whose Dan Mahowny is a nondescript bank manager with a ”financial problem.” He’s been stealing from his clients’ considerable funds to feed a serious gambling addiction and fend off lenders. It’s a virtuoso performance, based on the true story of Canada’s largest one-man bank fraud, but there’s a catch. Hoffman assumes the least attractive aspects of addiction: Employees at the flashy Vegas casino he frequents call his character the Iceman, not because he’s fearsome, but because he’s dead-eyed, whether he’s up a million or down — and it’s difficult to summon much sympathy for a man so blandly driven to destruction. EXTRAS None.