Wordiezett
So much average
AnhartLinkin
This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.
Fatma Suarez
The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful
philipfoxe
What really makes this movie come to life for me is the moral ambiguity at its heart. Richard Gere's character continually justifies his sociopathic behaviour by insisting that the importance of his business deal comes before anything else. He is continually perplexed and frustrated by the seeming inability of other people to understand this. This self centred centred Assurance and the sense of entitlement it brings is at the core of the meltdown that took place in our economic system. A well observed and interesting take on our Society.
ElliesWonder
Wonderful movie, get my attention in the first 15 minutes. Taken from a billionaires' point view, introduce to the situation of the supreme rich guy, his business, and family. Very complicated and attractive epistasis.I see Miller's greedy, selfish and badly cheating both in marriage and business finessed; but Miller is also very charming with his wisdom, courage, and family loving heart.It is complicated to give an answer if he is a good or bad, human just complex. I was totally captivated when I watched this movie, this is not an action movie, but it just drives you into the screen. Miller is unfaithful to his wife for sure. Yet I don't like his "innocent" wife either, in the close end, the wife found out his accident died secret lover, she wanted a divorce and leave nothing to Miller, she said it is her price - to lie. I think she has more story from the screen, maybe she knew Miller's love affair much earlier, but she is calm in order to be the billionaire's wife.
Matt Roberts
The banking and financial crash from 2008 has provided us with a number of movies to sink our teeth (or claws) into as we seek to understand what makes those high up in the financial industry tick. In recent years we have seen the sequel to Wall Street, bringing Gordon Gekko back from the 80's 'Greed is Good' culture, but with more interesting dramas like John Wells 'The Company Men' and J.C. Chandor's excellent 'Margin Call' the genre has been elevated above that of the mobile phones the size of a house brick, Filofaxes and slicked back hair. Richard Gere plays Robert Miller a hedge fund manager in the financial district of New York, and we soon find out his private life is much more complicated than flights in a private jet and signing off million dollar deals. Loyal wife Ellen (Sarandon) and daughter Brooke (Marling) who is trying to establish herself in her father's firm as heir apparent are seen to have the all the trappings of success in their lives. However we are then introduced to Millar's secrets, his mistress, art dealer Julie (Laetitia Casta) along with the fact he is chasing a signature from a rival CEO to buy his firm after he has fraudulently cooked the books to hide a disastrous transaction leaving him near broke. Millar exudes the confidence on the outside, but the cracks begin to show, and when the strain of potentially losing his mistress makes him decide to get away from the pressure, this leads to a tragic car accident leaving him with a crucial decision to make. In a corner Millar then calls on an old contact to help him out, cold and calculating and backed in a corner this is where we see why Millar has got to the top, he doesn't panic, the crisis brings out the worst in him as a person but this is survival mode. What he doesn't count on is Detective Bryer (Roth) investigating the accident, who instinctively knows what happened and will do anything to prove it. A really well paced and thoughtful thriller, with an excellent supporting cast, Roth perfect as the seemingly always slouching but knowing NYPD detective. Sarandon is excellent in every scene she appears but is criminally underused. However this is Gere's movie. His best role in years, he has all the confidence and grey haired charm, without being slimy, bringing another greedy money obsessed character to the screen, and despite this, with all that is happening to him, you are almost rooting for him. Almost.
Lee Eisenberg
While watching Nicholas Jarecki's "Arbitrage", I got the feeling that it was serving as an indictment of the Wall Street crowd as much as it was about a single person's mistake. Richard Gere's hedge fund manager is exactly the type of amoral person whose actions brought the world economy to ruin. As much as his personal mistake snowballs and causes further tragedy, it's trivial compared to what his business does. And then there's his entire life: he and his wife (Susan Sarandon) and daughter (Brit Marling) spend all their free time attending banquets and exchanging money with other rich snobs.It's a really interesting movie. Gere's character, like Gordon Gekko and Jordan Belfort, sees nothing questionable about his lifestyle or betraying someone to cover up his misdeed. And these types of people are still among us. Too big to jail indeed.I recommend the movie, although I thought that Susan Sarandon and Tim Roth were underused.
