your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it

Two for the Money (2005) - "After suffering a career-ending knee injury, a former college football star aligns himself with one of the most renowned touts in the sports-gambling business."

Source: a friend owns the DVD
I watched it because: I was at the friend's house and it was on after dinner
IMDB: 6.3/10  -  Rotten Tomatoes: Tomatometer: 22% Audience: 48%

notable quote: "You're a lemon, like a bad car. There is something... inherently defective in you - and you - and you - and me, and all of us. We're all lemons. We look like everyone else, but what makes us different is our defect. See, most gamblers, when they go to gamble, they go to win. When we go to gamble, we go to lose - subconsciously. Me, I never feel better than when they're raking the chips away, not bringing them in. And everyone here knows what I'm talking about. Hell, even when we win it's just a matter of time before we give it all back. But when we lose, that's another story. When we lose, and I'm talking about the kind of loss that makes your asshole pucker to the size of a decimal point - you know what I mean - you've just recreated the worst possible nightmare this side of malignant cancer, for the twentieth goddamn time; and you're standing there and you suddenly realize: 'Hey, I'm still... here. I'm still breathing. I'm still alive!' Us lemons, we fuck shit up all the time on purpose. Because we constantly need to remind ourselves we're alive. Gambling's not your problem; it's this fucked up need to feel something. To convince yourself you exist - that's the problem."

story: not too unbelievable, that a star college player might turn his knowledge toward a well-paying gig like the sports-betting industry
costumes, hair & makeup: does Pacino always wear his own clothes? I don't think I've seen him in any different wardrobe in his last 10-15 movies.
acting: nothing to sing about here

intangibles: hard to buy. They tried too hard, pushed the agenda too far, and alienated the audience.
overall: pass

Why all this fuss for a movie that I didn't like? 

It's that quote. That's Pacino's character, "sharing" at a meeting for gambling addicts. Its purpose in the film was to delineate his ethical code, which was a void. And to contrast it with McConaughey's character, which was morally flexible but prehaps redeemable. For me, though, it was something else.

It was a revelation.

It tied in from a pivotal scene in the Affleck/Jackson film Changing Lanes that I reviewed here. Another essentially poop film with one achingly meaningful exchange of dialog, where Jackson's character's sponsor says to him, "You know, booze isn't really your drug of choice anyway. You're addicted to chaos. For some of us, it's coke. For some of us, it's bourbon. But you? You got hooked on disaster."

I think that's the key, really, to life. You can be incredibly successful - superficially - but deeply unhappy. All the money in the bank won't resolve your aching psychological wounds. The best job and the prettiest puppy won't make up for giving up your one true love for a life of safety and security. Saying No, No, No to things that 'scare' you ... that's like going gambling for the rush of losing big (even when you pretend that you're there to win). Or like dependence on others' disaster and drama, as a substitute for making real choices for oneself. 

This is as much for myself as for anyone else. I'd love to get a conversation started about this, but will be satisfied if it makes y'all think on it for a while.

[the title quote is by Jalal ad-Din Rumi]