Exclusive film review: Money Monster

Bankers – aren’t they horrible? Enriching themselves through their deviousness at the cost of everyone else. Wouldn’t it be good if we could stick it to them? Jodie Foster seems to think so: she’s directed a film about it, a post-crisis thriller in which the little guy tries to give a Wall Street swindler what he’s got coming.

Debie Stowe

Director: Jodie Foster

Starring: George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Jack O’Connell

On at: Movieplex Cinema Plaza, Grand Cinema & More, Grand VIP Studios, Cine Globe Titan, Hollywood Multiplex, Cinema City Cotroceni, Cinema City Cotroceni VIP, Cinema City Mega Mall

Money Monster is one of a surprisingly limited genre: considering its huge impact, there haven’t been too many movies made about the financial crisis. This is probably because its actual mechanics mostly meant men in suits sitting at computer screens, which doesn’t make for riveting viewing. Also, credit default swaps and the other ludicrous sleights of hand that crooked bankers used to bring the world economy to the brink are fairly incomprehensible to the average person (as we later discovered was kind of the point) and therefore, rather dull.

Of course, financial stuff does become less dull if it’s George Clooney talking about it. The Money Monster of the title is a ghastly financial TV show presented by flippant Wall Street guru Lee Gates (Clooney as the classic smug, shallow wise-cracker that he’s played in everything from the Ocean’s trilogy to Up in the Air and most of his other output).

One of Lee’s recent stock tips, a trading fund called IBIS, has bombed, costing shareholders USD 800 million, and he’s about to interview the company’s CEO, Walt Camby (Dominic West), live on air to find out what went wrong.

Among the disgruntled minor investors is Kyle Budwell (Jack O’Connell), a young blue-collar worker who had staked his modest inheritance on IBIS and has subsequently been wiped out. Armed and dangerous, Kyle slips into the studio to demand some answers from Lee and Walt. Watching anxiously from the control booth is Lee’s director Patty (Julia Roberts, adding further star power to the mix).

Foster’s film proceeds to alternate between the tense developing situation on set and the true story behind the stock price plunge at IBIS.

The narrative rests on several improbable developments and coincidences, but overlook them and, as a thriller, it works well. Money Monster does its best to put the financial chicanery in audience-friendly terms, even if the ultimate explanation is patchy and doesn’t quite seem to add up. The rather simplistic characterization serves the genre well enough.

Sure, we’ve seen Clooney play this kind of dapper but glib man about town over and over, but that’s because he’s very watchable doing it. The easy charm and banter he enjoys with Roberts, honed over two Ocean’s outings, helps offset the tension of the gun-toting.

Despite its flaws, Money Monster is an enjoyable Wall Street take down, a worthy attempt to connect the dodgy dealings of jet-setting financiers with the chaos that their cavalier doings cause in the lives of the average Joe.

DMCA

PROTECTED