Film: Arbitrage

Director: Nicholas Jarecki
Genre: Drama
Source: USA (2012)
Rating: R
Location/Format: Netflix Instant Watch
Grade: B

A surprisingly taut dramatic thriller about a financial guru (investor? consultant? CEO?) for whom everything seems to go wrong at once. Richard Gere is the standout here as businessman and self-proclaimed patriarch Robert Miller who finds himself in the midst of a razor's edge business deal while his personal life spirals out of control around him. Gere is sharp and commanding, and the film is a reminder that the guy is a solid actor. I didn't realize until I was writing this review that apparently he was nominated for a Golden Globe, and it makes sense. He really inhabited the character, making him both compelling and abhorrent all at once.

The storyline was also surprisingly engrossing. Miller believes every problem in his life can be solved with money, and while often that proves to be the case, director and writer Nicholas Jarecki does a nice job creating situations in which it is clear to the audience and everyone else involved that trying to buy his way out of his own actions is both gauche and despicable. Except that maybe it can work, and the film's willingness to move towards ambiguity instead of a simple morality tale elevates it more than I expected. Maybe the rich really are different than you or me. 

Not everything in the film works. Tim Roth's accent is so broad that I wonder how no one took him aside and told him to dial it down a few dozen notches (and I liked the physical work he was doing, so you know the accent was distracting). Similarly, at times the financial dealings of this upper echelon were simplified so much for the audience that it seemed silly--multimillion dollar accounting projects being tallied in a basic Excel spreadsheet? OK, I guess so. (Fortunately, Brit Marling, who I want to see in more movies, sells the scene pretty well, so I didn't roll my eyes too much.)

It's not a classic movie, but it came out of nowhere to surprise me, and I always like that. Plus, it reminds me that Richard Gere should get a little more work. Not a bad way to spend a couple hours.

Alternate Film Title: "What's an Applebee's?