TWO FOR THE MONEY

US, 2005, 122 minutes, Colour.
Al Pacino, Matthew Mc Conaughy, Rene Russo, Armand Assante, Jeremy Piven, Jaime King.
Directed by D.J. Caruso.

Scripture is often quoted as saying that ‘money is the root of all evil’. That is not quite exact. The actual quotation is that ‘the love of money is the root of all evil’. That is certainly the text for this film. It is a film about gambling, about gambling addiction. This reviewer had to react carefully as gambling is not one of his favourite pastimes.

This is a moral film. By the end it is a moralising film. It has taken us on a journey of self-discovery by Brandon Lang (Matthew Mc Conaughy), a boy who wanted to please his father with his sports talent, who went on to be a champion college footballer (but whose alcoholic father walked out on the family) and who, in one of his greatest scores, suffered a leg injury that stopped him from playing again. In the meantime (which turned out to be six years), he worked as a sales phone operator.

On to the other end of the phone comes Walter Abrams with an offer to good to refuse. Walter is played by Al Pacino, not quite so over the top as in recent years, but a strong performance that mesmerises both Brandon and the audience. Pacino has already had the opportunity to play Satan in the modern business world in The Devil’s Advocate. While this is something of a re-run, it is a creative variation on the theme.

Walter runs a legal, though shady and morally dubious, betting company that gives comprehensive tips for wins but does not handle bets. What it does handle is a percentage on winnings that result from advice given. Obviously it is worth millions (well, not ‘worth’ millions but that is the kind of income the company makes).

Walter is also a gambling addict who has been ‘clean’ for eighteen years. However, his business risk-taking is just another form of addiction. He also confesses that he gets a thrill from the experience of losing – and he finally risks the loss both of his friendship and partnership with Brandon as well as of his wife and daughter. The film is obviously about Walter’s moral journey but this is a highways and byways (and dead ends) kind of journey, much less obvious than Brandon’s succumbing to Walter’s wiles and the get-rich-quick – and now – philosophy of life. Brandon can succeed because he is a whiz at tipping football game winners.

Another quotation, this time from the poet W.B.Yeats, reminds us that in a time of crisis, ‘the centre cannot hold’. Walter so pressurises Brandon that he has no life left for himself. Brandon also discovers that Walter is more manipulative of people’s lives than he had ever suspected. And when he starts to pressurise customers into higher risk-betting, his conscience starts to get to him. This is reinforced when he starts to unravel in his tips and is bashed by a Puerto Rican billionaire (Armand Assante) who relies on his advice and loses.

What will Brandon do? What are the real choices in a hedonistic, materialistic world? To go with the flow or to take a moral stance?

The film capitalises on the contrast between the hyperactive Pacino and the extremely laid-back McConaughey? who tends to rely on his kind of aw-shucks charm and his image as what PR calls ‘ a hunk’ (he is fit and does spend a lot of movie time doing push-ups). Rene Russo (whose husband, Dan Gilroy, wrote the screenplay) appears as Pacino’s wife, a former drug addict for whom every day is a challenge to keep going and not fall back.

In the background are the phone sales staff with their intense patter and pressurising of customers, their victims whom they con and who allow their addictions to con them.

1.Interesting drama? Character portraits? The theme of gambling? The struggle between good and evil? Addiction? Choices?

2.The voice-over, Brandon Lang and his story? The more folksy beginning, Brandon as a boy, his relationship with his father and his achievement? Proving himself to his father? His relationship with his mother? His growing up, his sport success, seeing him playing, his skills, the final run, his injury? In hospital? His inability to play again? His job, the passing of six years, his phone-answering service? His comments on his life and career?

3.The phone call from Walter, the proposal, his decision to go, his wanting to help his brother, his mother? His father having disappeared, alcoholic? His arrival in New York, being welcomed by Walter? Walter as a substitute father figure – dominant father figure?

4.Al Pacino as Walter, his appearance, manner, age? His intense performance? The rhetorical style? Overstated or not? His background, drugs and alcohol, gambling addiction? Off for eighteen years? His attendance at meetings – and his later taking Brandon to the meeting, his behaviour, his speech, his giving out cards to exploit the possible lapses of the gamblers? This symbolic of his intensity, his desire to succeed? His business, advising? Within the law? Yet exploiting addictions? His television program, his manner on-camera, his assistants and their spiels? His explanations of his system to Brandon?

5.Brandon’s decision to go along with the job offer? The interview with Walter, Walter liking him? His sending him to Toni? The manicure – and its actually being the interview? His making a pass, discovering that Toni was Walter’s wife? Walter on the phone organising the elephant for the birthday party? The atmosphere of wheeler-dealing? Brandon and his decision to be part of this? His initial success, the repercussions, success, money?

6.The staff, the various members on the phone, sales? Others working out systems? Jerry and his personal system, his looking down on Brandon? The other members of the group? Introductions, seeing them at work? Walter and his hierarchy, offices, different floors, Brandon staying in the apartment? Gradually being introduced to the wider work? Appearing on TV? His visual transformation, clothes, haircut? His becoming John Anthony? The reason for the name John Anthony? Walter getting him to rehearse spiels, recording them, Walter rejecting them? His finally succeeding? Going on-line, talking to clients?

7.Brandon and his success, it becoming the all-absorbing part of his life? The sample customer, Amir, pressurising him, later sharing his success, later being abused for Amir losing everything and his pressurising him? The only family life with Walter and Toni and their daughter? The meals? The bet that he could not get the girl to go out with him, spending the night with her, going to see her later in his troubles, her telling him the truth that it was all set up by Walter? The effect on Brandon?

8.The decision to go to Puerto Rico? Novian as the millionaire gambler, his assistant? The spiel? Walter and the intensity, keeping quiet and letting Brandon speak more directly? Their getting the contract? The great success? The record number of wins? Brandon’s collapse, Novian ambushing him in the park, the bashing?

9.Brandon, Walter blocking his father’s calls, the talk with his mother? His being disturbed by Walter’s manipulation even though wanting him as a father figure? Walter and his being absolutely persuasive? Brandon on television, not giving the spiel, talking from the heart? Getting clients? His beginning to slip, not wanting to care? Finally tossing a coin? The advice on-air, the risks of the game? His beginning to lose? The scenes of abundance of money compared with the tension as the staff waited for the results? Walter’s anger – yet still trusting and praising Brandon’s gifts?

10.The set-up for Toni and Brandon? Walter saying he was going out of town? Not turning up for the meal, spying on Toni and Brandon, the kiss, his conclusions? The later confrontation of Toni? Her explaining that Brandon had worked out what was happening, his anger, their setting Walter up? Walter’s collapse, his reliance on Toni, the reconciliation?

11.Walter and his philosophy of winning and losing, the buzz coming from losing the chips? How much did this influence him in his addiction, wanting to win in business, the relationship with Toni – and perhaps wanting it to fail?

12.Jerry, cocksure, his system, spurning Brandon, being rejected in the TV studio, being fired?

13.Alexandria, the set-up in the restaurant, Brandon going to see her, her telling him the truth?

14.The profiles of the addicted gamblers, at the meeting, the phone calls? The film’s explaining the nature of the addiction, how it was channelled?

15.Sport, the bets, all during the week? The finale with Brandon leaving the message, Walter finding it? Brandon watching the match at the airport – and the win?

16.Brandon, back home, doing the coaching?

17.This kind of idealism in a capitalistic and hedonistic world? Materialistic? The easy fulfilment of the American dream? An assertion of better values, choices and principles?