This film is recommended.
Never has there been a more reprehensible or despised person as the American businessperson. The lust for wealth and power have brought this once revered executive type to the forefront, edging out deranged serial killers, religious zealots, and evil Nazis as the single most hated villains of recent years. After decades of pillaging and destroying many lives for personal gains, the financier has earned his/her ranking in the upper echelons of the business world while systematically downgrading that image to the soon-to-be-disappearing middle class sub-servants. Which brings us to the central character in the absorbing new thriller, Arbitrage.
The suave and dashing Richard Gere plays the generic sounding character, Robert Miller, a suave and dashing billionaire who wheels and deals with the worst of them. ( It seems in today's market, no ones a millionaire anymore, that's small change. ) Insulated from any question of impropriety or wrongdoing, Robert covers up his criminal behavior built on Ponzi schemes and illegal trading with his well-tailored suits, his luxurious lifestyle, and a smile that hides that inner sneer of superiority and smugness. He lies to his loving daughter ( Brit Marling ), who works aside him in his company, cheats on his wife ( Susan Sarandon ), who turns her back on his scandalous acts in order to savor the beautiful life, and of course, has a demanding mistress on the side ( Laetitia Casta ), who always wants more. His life is always one step ahead of everyone else, but he seems to thrive on that negative energy. That is until...
To say anything further could spoil the enjoyment of this well-paced mystery, except to say that amid complications that arise in Robert's life, there are nice turns by Nate Parker as Robert's friend and the underrated actor Tim Roth as Det. Michael Bryer, an inquiring Columbo type of character who begins to grow suspicious of Robert and his many shady activities.
Newcomer Nicholas Jarecki has written and directed the film with confidence and style. He has assembled a strong cast and has written such a fully realized egocentric character, one in which Gere can use all his charm and star power to create an even more compelling and somewhat likable cad. This is one of his finest roles in years. However Jarecki's other characters have less to do in the film, other than react indirectly, until their major scene arrives and they can go off full throttle, which the actors do well.
Arbitrage covers familiar ground and goes after easy targets of greed and corruption that would normally incense any law-abiding person, but the film wisely capitalizes on its talented cast to pay out a high dividend by earning the moviegoers' interest with all of the unscrupulous activity emanating from those glass towers overlooking the unsuspecting passersby below. GRADE: B
Visit my blog at: www.dearmoviegoer.com
ANY COMMENTS: Please contact me at: jadepietro@rcn.com to add comments.
Never has there been a more reprehensible or despised person as the American businessperson. The lust for wealth and power have brought this once revered executive type to the forefront, edging out deranged serial killers, religious zealots, and evil Nazis as the single most hated villains of recent years. After decades of pillaging and destroying many lives for personal gains, the financier has earned his/her ranking in the upper echelons of the business world while systematically downgrading that image to the soon-to-be-disappearing middle class sub-servants. Which brings us to the central character in the absorbing new thriller, Arbitrage.
The suave and dashing Richard Gere plays the generic sounding character, Robert Miller, a suave and dashing billionaire who wheels and deals with the worst of them. ( It seems in today's market, no ones a millionaire anymore, that's small change. ) Insulated from any question of impropriety or wrongdoing, Robert covers up his criminal behavior built on Ponzi schemes and illegal trading with his well-tailored suits, his luxurious lifestyle, and a smile that hides that inner sneer of superiority and smugness. He lies to his loving daughter ( Brit Marling ), who works aside him in his company, cheats on his wife ( Susan Sarandon ), who turns her back on his scandalous acts in order to savor the beautiful life, and of course, has a demanding mistress on the side ( Laetitia Casta ), who always wants more. His life is always one step ahead of everyone else, but he seems to thrive on that negative energy. That is until...
To say anything further could spoil the enjoyment of this well-paced mystery, except to say that amid complications that arise in Robert's life, there are nice turns by Nate Parker as Robert's friend and the underrated actor Tim Roth as Det. Michael Bryer, an inquiring Columbo type of character who begins to grow suspicious of Robert and his many shady activities.
Newcomer Nicholas Jarecki has written and directed the film with confidence and style. He has assembled a strong cast and has written such a fully realized egocentric character, one in which Gere can use all his charm and star power to create an even more compelling and somewhat likable cad. This is one of his finest roles in years. However Jarecki's other characters have less to do in the film, other than react indirectly, until their major scene arrives and they can go off full throttle, which the actors do well.
Arbitrage covers familiar ground and goes after easy targets of greed and corruption that would normally incense any law-abiding person, but the film wisely capitalizes on its talented cast to pay out a high dividend by earning the moviegoers' interest with all of the unscrupulous activity emanating from those glass towers overlooking the unsuspecting passersby below. GRADE: B
Visit my blog at: www.dearmoviegoer.com
ANY COMMENTS: Please contact me at: jadepietro@rcn.com to add comments.