A window on betting subculture

Sports betting is America’s dirty little secret. As much as $200

billion per year is bet on sporting events in this country, most of

it illegally. Little acknowledgment of the scope of this issue

appears in the media. If anything, newspapers, magazines, radio and

television shows promote gambling by discussing point spreads and

odds. The advent of the Internet has given gamblers even easier

access to the action and probably hastens their financial ruin.

“Two for the Money,” starring Al Pacino and Matthew McConaughey,

is a window on this subculture. Pacino stars as Walter Abrams, owner

of a New York betting service with its own 900-numbers and a cable

television show. On the ground floor Abrams has people manning the

phones, and callers are paying $25 for an early line on that

weekend’s games. On the second floor is where the big money is made.

Here Walter has his best prognosticators working with high-rolling

clients. There is no charge for the best tips, but the winners are

expected to pay a percentage of their take to the service.

Technically, Walter is not breaking the law because he’s not taking

bets.

McConaughey plays Brandon Lang, a onetime hotshot college

quarterback who still works out incessantly in the misguided hope he

can eventually hook up with a pro team. Barely making ends meet while

he waits for a break that will never come, Brandon works a miserable

job at a phone service where he makes recordings for pay lines such

as the Britney Spears fan club. One day the guy who does the football

hotline is sick and Brandon fills in. Using his knowledge of the

game, Brandon is amazingly accurate and eventually comes to Walter’s

attention. A first-class airline ticket and some spending cash is all

that it takes for Brandon to jump at the chance.

Starting on the phone lines, Brandon maintains a remarkable streak

with his football picks, so much so that Walter quickly moves him

upstairs and has him working under an alias. Walter has given Brandon

more than a new name: He has created an entire persona, a cocksure

super-salesman who easily pushes his clients to bet more and more.

Walter’s life is risky in every regard. His wife Toni (Rene Russo)

tells Brandon that Walter is held together by 12-step meetings. “If

it says anonymous at the end of it,” she tells him, “he goes.” At one

Gambler’s Anonymous meeting, Walter tells the members they all share

a defect that requires them to lose everything to feel alive. When

they win, they just keep gambling until they lose.

This philosophy rules Walter’s life, and one never knows what’s a

con and what isn’t. Walter lays everything on the line every day --

his health, his business and even his family. For a while Brandon

tries to play the game, but Walter tends to wear everyone out

eventually.

Pacino delivers one of his patented scenery-chewing performances.

While I feel he has a tendency to overact, his bigger-than-life

persona suits Walter well.

Russo is glamorous and a little pathetic as Walter’s

long-suffering wife, and McConaughey is believable as the ex-jock

who’s in over his head.

“Two for the Money” is not actually a sports move but a

psychological drama that takes place in an industry that perverts

sports toward another end. “Two for the Money” is fast-paced and

well-acted and definitely keeps your attention.

‘Greatest Game’ can’t overcome its own obstacles

Everybody deals with obstacles. Two popular obstacles movie

characters confront are those involving an adversary and those

dealing with one’s own short-

comings. “The Greatest Game Ever Played” weaves both types of

obstacles into a story based on actual events.

At the rate the main character, Francis, is developing his golf

skills, he has the potential to be the Tiger Woods of his day. In the

early 1900s, however, his working-class background reduces his

opportunities to somewhere between slim and none. The closest he gets

to a golf course, given the expense of playing and restrictive

membership rules, is as a caddy to the idle rich.

The club members love to gamble and win, so when an amateur golf

championship between American and British players comes to town, the

men he caddies for sponsor him in the tournament. It’s a

once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Francis to play alongside top

world golf champions. Francis’s dad, however, tells his son that if

he plays he must leave home, because golf won’t teach him how to earn

a living and raise a family.

Although his father may be correct about the game not putting

money into his son’s pocket, competition allows Francis to learn

about himself. Being adept at hitting the ball is easy; keeping your

mind focused on the task at hand is difficult. Problems at home --

like those between father and son and doubts about one’s talents --

throw even the best of players off their game. Francis has to

overcome his feelings of low self-esteem if he is to stay in the

game.

There are older and younger counterparts to Francis who have

similar experiences -- middle-aged Harry from England and 10-year-old

Eddy, caddy to Francis. These three characters, the challenges they

face on the golf course and the inner demons they struggle with are

the film’s greatest strengths. Out of the three, Eddy is the scene

stealer, rattling off wise-cracking lines like “roll it and hole it”

to Francis as he faces a difficult shot. If you can picture Danny

DeVito and Joe Pesci from “My Cousin Vinny” rolled into one, that

gives you an idea of what Eddy is like.

The movie, however, has its own obstacles that it fails to

overcome. The majority of the rich in the film are blatantly bigoted

toward the poor. It is overkill to the point of being unbelievable.

Some are going to be rude, but the majority?

Still, there is something to admire and enjoy about the film, and

that is its ability to inspire people by showing what it takes to

excel in life. Inspiration is Disney’s trademark. While not the

greatest movie ever made, this one is worth watching at some point

along the movies’ life span -- if not in the theater then on DVD or

cable.