Two for the Money (2005)

Starring: Al Pacino, Matthew McConaughey, Rene Russo, Jeremy Piven, and Jaime King
Grade: B+

Two for the Money does play it a little too safe, but it’s still very engaging. Plus, Matthew McConaughey and Al Pacino make a great sales team.

I wouldn’t bet against them.

Summary

In a narration showing our main character when he was a kid, Brandon Lang (McConaughey) tells us about his childhood in which sports encompassed his life. The better he was at them, the happier his dad seemed to be. He did it all so his father would stay happy but unfortunately, his dad still left him before his 10th birthday. We then fast forward to see Lang playing Division I college football, as the star quarterback for the Arizona State Sun Devils. At a bowl game, we see Lang score the game winning touchdown, but he gets trampled in the endzone, suffering a severe knee injury that ends his career and his chance at going pro. However, he is not a quitter. It’s now six years since that bowl game, and Brandon still trains heavily and continues to try out for teams. In-between everything, he works as some hotline caller guy. One day, the guy that runs the sports handicapping (for those that don’t know, this means to predict winners for people that bet) line is sick, so Brandon is asked to fill in for him. All he had to do was report the guy’s picks but Brandon, knowing football as much as he does, didn’t agree with everything the guy had written down. So, he changes all of the picks outright and quickly starts becoming the biggest 900 line in Las Vegas. At this point, his predictions hover around an impressive 75%, but he’s still not even making $12 an hour. Though he lives with his mom and brother and receives another rejection letter from another arena football team, he doesn’t lose hope just yet.

He starts to consider the CFL as an option.

The next day, Brandon’s first phone call as he gets into work is from Walter Abrams (Pacino), the owner of the biggest sports consulting service in the country. He got word on Brandon going 9-2 last Sunday on his picks and offers him a job. He paid someone to put an envelope in Brandon’s work desk, and it contains an airline ticket and travel cash. Walter tells Brandon to write down how much he should be making and how much it will take for him to fly to New York first class to come work for him. Well, considering the hole he’s in, Brandon flies to New York.

It’s time to make some real money.

Walter Abrams is what you would think a big-time boss in New York would be like. He’s brash, loud, abrasive, aggressive, and is all about the money. He explains to Brandon that sports betting is a $200 billion-a-year business, and it’s illegal in 49 states, including New York. However, what Walter’s business does isn’t illegal because they advise people on how to bet. If a client wins by taking their advice, they get a percentage but if the client loses, they get nothing. He also shows Brandon a cable TV show that he hosts about predictions and such. The bottom line is that Walter wants to win at all costs, and Brandon seems to be all-in. The first thing Walter does though is send Brandon to get a manicure and meet some beautiful woman he knows. Brandon goes to the salon and meets the owner in Toni (Russo). He starts flirting with her, but she tells him she’s actually married to Walter, and she’s used to test new employees and ask them questions to see if Walter can trust them. It’s basically an interview before the official hire. Brandon recovers well from the initial misstep, and her and Toni quickly become friends. Later, Walter takes Brandon to the apartment complex he’s staying in. Apparently, Brandon is gifted an entire floor to himself. Walter then tells him that he’s starting Brandon off with a job similar to what he had in Vegas (for more money) and will move him up accordingly. However, he needs to change his pitch to customers. Also, Walter tells Brandon to use the name “John Anthony”, AKA the “Million Dollar Man”. It’s almost a character that Brandon has to become so he can sell to customers believably.

Brandon’s official pitch takes a little while but when he finally gets one that Walter somewhat likes, Walter has a little episode with his heart. He’s able to take his pill to calm down but makes Brandon get him a cigarette. Anyway, on Walter’s daughter’s birthday, Brandon’s picks go 6-0. Later, he goes 82% in total. Brandon, Walter, and Toni celebrate at dinner, and the night ends with Walter challenging Brandon to pick up some girl (King) at another table, saying he can’t do it.

Well, considering this is Matthew McConaughey we’re talking about, let’s just say he won this round.

The next day, Brandon is brought into the real office of Walter’s company, and this is where he meets the staff of scumbag sellers, including Walter’s top handicapper in Jerry Sykes (Piven). Now, Walter wants Brandon to become one of his top handicappers as well, selling to big money clients. He tries to get him to be aggressive in his selling by telling him a basic sentence to tell clients: “I don’t what your money. I want your bookie’s fucking money”. He has Brandon repeat it back to him but after he omits “fucking” from the sentence, and he says he doesn’t need to say it, Walter sees that he needs to bring some edge out of Brandon. They go to a gambler’s anonymous meeting, and Walter makes this rousing speech to all the people there about wanting to lose being more of a high than actually winning, with Brandon sitting next to him to observe. Some guy “outs” Walter as the host of the sports betting company show, so as Walter leaves with Brandon as everyone yells at them, he offers his card to everyone to promote his business. This results in Brandon asking, “What the fuck was that?”, and Walter being happy because he finally got him to say it. It was all some weird test. That’s just the beginning of Walter’s teachings to try and get success out of Brandon because he sees a lot in his potential.

After Brandon is able to convince this $1,000 better to lay $20,000 on a game, he starts to get on a major roll. He’s becoming the John Anthony character Walter created for him. However, as is the case with any gambling movie, there will be the highest of highs and lowest of lows for a protagonist like this.

My Thoughts:

The world of sports betting is an exciting one. On one hand, you can make your company millions and become a star in the process. On the other hand, you may anger someone to the point where you’re held at gunpoint while you’re being legitimately pissed on. This is the world Brandon Lang has entered.

The high stakes, the potential to lose everything you own, the possibility of winning big money, all of it makes this risky business so exciting. Being in this environment, even for a non-gambler like Brandon Lang, is an enjoyable challenge. Though it’s not the physical challenge that playing pro football is, Brandon does love the game enough to become entrenched in the world of betting big and winning big. That high he gets from talking with big-time clients, and the fact that he’s right more often than not, fuels that competitive fire within him. He sees success and he wants more of it. This is a competitiveness that exists in any athlete at that next level, and it translates well into the fast-paced work environment Brandon Lang finds himself in. Matthew McConaughey plays this role very well, really capturing the fire of a former competitive athlete. He’s able to keep that easygoing, smooth charm he’s known for and parlay it into a salesman character with ease. When he gets going in the work setting though, he brings that vitality with him needed to get to the next level. This is what makes him such a match for Al Pacino’s Walter Abrams.

His relationship with Pacino’s egotistical “I know better than everyone” mentor (with a devious side), is a highly entertaining one to watch unfold. This is probably because Pacino has played a similar role in numerous movies including the eerily similar The Devil’s Advocate, The Recruit, The Irishman and others. Pacino is great as a troubled mentor that wants it all and is willing to lose a lot to get it. In some movies, he realizes he needs to change and in others, he doesn’t before it’s too late. In The Devil’s Advocate, it doesn’t really matter but that’s beside the point.

The point is this becomes Walter’s movie just as much as it is Brandon’s because seeing him either fall completely apart and ruin his marriage, or realizing he’s gone too far, becomes a very important part of the movie and the direction of the story. At some points, it honestly looks like he can’t be saved. He plainly states, “There’s no such thing as too far”. This is a motto he lives by and though he loves Brandon like a son, and he loves his (very) patient wife, he’s too stuck in his ways. We see it after Brandon wins the company millions. He asks for a bigger cut of the commission (in a very polite way), and Walter threatens him, saying he better not come at him with a question like this as Brandon Lang but as John Anthony. This is one of those moments where Brandon questions how long he can work there, as well as when he realizes that he isn’t Walter’s pseudo-son but rather a pawn in a money-making scheme. Even so, he still loves Walter, but is the stress worth it? Can Walter change his ways after treating this man like his son, or will it be too late before he realizes he fucked up? Only Brandon Lang’s good-hearted nature could make Walter realize that maybe, life shouldn’t be all about the money. Despite him being as miserable as he is, he may be there for a reason other than a simple job.

This back-and-forth relationship with Walter carries this film and is definitely worth watching. The steps they take to build Brandon Lang up to be the person Walter sees in him are incredibly interesting. Early on, Walter tells Brandon he’s unequivocally John Anthony, the character he created for Brandon. He has to become John Anthony without question. It’s not acting. He has to live this character to get to the next level. As crazy as this may sound, Brandon buys into it. Well, Walter’s gotten this far, right? Clearly, he must know what he’s talking about. If someone has been on the biggest stage and won, you tend to trust their word more than anyone. Athletes see this in coaches and Brandon sees this in Walter, his coach in a way. His mentorship to Brandon becomes father/son-like, and Walter doesn’t shy away from the fact. He sees too much potential in Brandon’s approach, eagerness, ambitiousness, and confidence and wants to push him to the absolute limit to get the best results. It’s reminiscent of that tough style of parenting you sometimes see in families of athletes. Seeing these moments of the somewhat crazy Walter pushing Brandon are some of the better scenes in the movie because we want to see how long it will take for Brandon to break, push back, or become a mini-Walter. Sometimes he gets close to the latter, but the reason we like Brandon is because despite how far he gets into his “John Anthony” personality, we know that he could never go that far.

He’s just too nice of a guy. He’s not a cutthroat person with no problem being a piece of shit. Yeah, he’s competitive and wants to win, but he’s not an absolute maniac either. He can acknowledge when lines are crossed, and this is what separates the two. At first, Brandon even tries to avoid cussing. This is where the line starts to be drawn. As I stated in the summary, this scene is where Walter realizes he needs to mess with Brandon’s core values a little bit to get him into a sales, kill-or-be-killed mentality to achieve the results he wants. In the aforementioned gambler’s anonymous meeting where everyone starts yelling at Walter because they realize he runs a sports betting business, Walter gives a guy his card, saying “You never know when you’ll relapse!”. Can you imagine that? As funny as it was to watch, it shows you how different both men are to their cores, despite wanting similar goals. It also shows us the true nature of success in a business like this, making us wonder about Brandon’s well-being. Is this really for him? Is he willing to go far enough? Can he become the tyrant he needs to be?

Later, you think he’s firing on all cylinders and is seemingly unstoppable as one of the best advisors in the business. Walter gives him the company’s highest client yet, explaining that they’ve been trying to get him for years. However, as they arrive from the flight, Walter tests him again at an absurd level. He fakes a heart attack in front of everyone. As a teary-eyed Brandon realizes Walter was messing with him, he tells Walter that this was way too far. As a viewer, you would tend to agree with this, no? Well, Walter says that very important quote I mentioned earlier saying, “There’s no such thing as too far”, insisting that you keep pushing and pushing at all costs. There is no line you shouldn’t cross to win, according to Walter. You do anything to make that money and get your client to buy what you’re selling. Though Brandon probably would’ve been fine without this shock to the system, you can tell this changes him. He does walk into that meeting and the client, though a smart man, buys into Brandon’s unshakeable confidence. However, this becomes the high that starts his trend downwards. As Walter said in that gambler’s anonymous meeting, the real high of gambling is losing and wanting to do it over again. It’s more of a high than actually winning. This foreshadows the thoughts that come across the viewer too, as we wonder whether Brandon will follow this loop that Walter talked about to the recovering gambling addicts.

As dirty as the character that Walter is, I can’t help but admit how great of a salesman he is. All of his tactics are very believable, and the tricks of the trade that he teaches Brandon seem pretty realistic, at least to a novice viewer like me. One point he mentions is that as long as you have a client on the phone, you hooked them. They are interested. This means the hard part is over with, and all you have to do is hit them with that confidence to make them go all-in. Honestly, this makes sense. Very rarely is someone in the hole, or willing to bet more than a $1,000 on a game, going to hang up the phone on someone that is paid to advise you in the right direction. They will at least listen to what you have to say. Confidence is key. Let’s be honest, this John Anthony was the right choice. If Matthew McConaughey was selling to me, it would be hard to tell him no. When he first starts, he tells Walter that his pitch is centered around the fact that he’s at least 80% on predictions (which I thought was pretty good), but Walter is adamant on the pomp and circumstance bits. He tells stats aren’t enough. He needs a voice. He needs to push the confidence in the John Anthony character he’s selling because that’s how you convince a customer to trust you. Once they buy into John Anthony, they will believe what he’s telling them. The stats are secondary. It’s all about John Anthony and building a brand, and this is what Walter believes can help him build an empire around it all.

I loved it, and what makes us believe is the performances of both Pacino and McConaughey, who buy into every word just like the audience. We’re so hooked, we react to everything Brandon does with understanding. When Brandon dejects himself from the situation in those “too far” moments, we deject ourselves because we’ve become attached to Brandon and his journey. This is when we realize that this father-son relationship isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. It also doesn’t help when Brandon starts to get lazy in his research and starts to fail, losing a lot of people a lot of money. He tries to inspire himself by becoming “Brandon” again instead of John Anthony. Once this doesn’t work either, he sees the writing on the wall, and we can’t help but feel for him. Why? It’s because of how good McConaughey is throughout this forgotten gem!

I didn’t understand the added detail that Walter technically doesn’t bet anymore and is a recovered gambler. If he runs a sports betting business and is encouraging everyone around him, are things really that different? Does his wife Toni trust him that much to think he hasn’t relapsed once since the 80s? He’s around bettors all the time. It’s his life. All he does is advise people on what to do with their money and who to bet on. That’s just betting with extra steps! At one point, we see Toni crying to Brandon that Walter is gambling again, and it doesn’t have nearly the emotional weight these writers clearly think it does. This was bound to happen from the beginning and honestly, it’s like he was doing it the whole time anyway. Why is this so surprising to her? He even bets Brandon money he can’t pick up some girl in front of Toni. When she tells him to stop betting, he passes it off as a “challenge” with money on the line and changes the subject. Hey Toni! That’s betting! Stop being so naive! You look like an absolute fool.

The ending was very good. Though it was reminiscent of 2014’s The Gambler (which did it much better), it was still a very fitting ending that rang home the fact that as good as you are, the life of a gambler can be determined as easy as a flip of a coin, and everything can be changed just like that. It can be sink or swim, or life or death, and it is all up to the people you ask advice from. The twist involving the battle of wits was an added bonus.

The ending also included a great scene with Pacino flipping out, something I always look forward to in a Pacino movie.

Hey, if an ending leads to that million-dollar smile by McConaughey, you know the watch was worth it.

Two for the Money is a very good movie about the world of sports betting and the tools to success it takes to make some serious money as an advisor. It also shows the highs, the lows, the shady characters, and the exhilaration of losing and winning a lot of money. Seeing actors like Matthew McConaughey and Al Pacino play the puppeteers behind it all and seeing them reap the rewards, and serious consequences, is an invigorating thing to watch. When you add Rene Russo, and Jeremy Piven playing another great douchebag, you get a pretty entertaining film. It’s not The Wolf of Wall Street or anything, but it’s similar in style, less vulgar, and is still a very entertaining watch.