In Mark Lee's (remember him from Gallipoli?) feature film directorial debut, a stockbroker, Will (Matthew Newton), has a bet with a banker, Angus (Aden Young), on who can make the most money in 90 days, the winner taking $100K. Naturally, as is the case with such things, careers and personal relationships are sacrificed on the wheel of fortune in order to feed this all-consuming passion.
The 1980's was the hey day of the cut-throat stockbroker and from Trading Places to Wall Street and even Die Hard, this was reflected in the movies of that era. If The Bet is anything to go by, however, then stockbrokers haven't learnt anything in the 20 years hence and they're still a fly-by-the-seat-of-their-pants mob with a penchant for suicidal tendencies when the going gets tough. And herein lies the problem of The Bet - it's handling of it's subject matter makes it feel 20 years out of date, conforming to 80's stereotypes as it plays out its predictable hand.
The film is called "The Bet" and, indeed, there is duly a "bet" which sets the narrative in motion but from that point on, it strangely doesn't bear too heavily on the story. There's several moments within the film where you think to yourself, "oh yeah, that's right, this is about the bet." It's always lingering in the background but somehow always finds itself secondary to the stockmarket action. Perhaps this is because the inherent tension, elation and tragedy involved in the trading of stocks is so interesting but, in any case, some narrative balance would not go astray. Likewise, some balance could be brought to the pace of the film. There's little build up to the point where everything must inevitably go wrong; everything seems to be going swimmingly until suddenly it isn't; the mood of the film turns on a die. Also it can be difficult to connect the dots at times and, subsequently, clumsy slabs of dialogue are required in order to make it clear.
There are, however, some nice performances here, particularly Matthew Newton who effortlessly shakes off recent media reports of domestic violence in his private life, and Sibylla Budd is easy to like even if she is playing essentially the same character from The Bank.
It's entertaining enough to make it a worth a look but it won't change the world.
