Arbitrage

"What's your price?" The question haunts Richard Gere's character of Robert Miller, a vain hedge fund manager married to Ellen (Susan Sarandon) and preparing to hand down his business dynasty to his daughter Brooke (Brit Marling). That is, until a freak accident with his mistress coincides with a self-perpetrating fraud scandal. Now confronted with unprecedented stress, Miller has to fight to keep his family and business intact.

Richard Gere's absence on the Oscar nomination stage for the entirety of his career will hopefully be ended with this stunning character study. Gere is in perfect form, personifying a complicated man who for once sees the results of his narcissistic actions. While his empire crumbles, his personal life goes the same way. Every scene Gere is in brings to light just how powerful an actor he is.

But an actor would be nothing without a powerful script. The author of the film's screenplay is also the film's director, Nicholas Jarecki, the co-author of the 2009 film adaptation of the Bret Easton Ellis film "The Informers". In his largest film yet, Jarecki keeps with themes of arrogance that comes with power. The script moves at a brisk pace, keeping your attention and leaving you nearly breathless once you've reached the conclusion.

Cinematography and setting blend easily into the background of these character's actions. New York City is brought to live, as she has countless times before, as the epicenter and culmination of the good and the bad. But what sets the screen apart from any other NYC-set film is the fact that nothing seems to be done to make NYC any more like NYC. The film's version of the city is exactly how it is in real life.

Susan Sarandon, still as beautiful as ever, steals her scenes as Miller's powerful wife. As does Brit Marling and especially Nate Parker, newcomers full of promise. The sole weak spot is, surprisingly, the performance of Tim Roth, the detective. His character starts the film with a Brooklyn-type accent. In his second scene Roth seems to attain his native Cockney accent, then lose it as the film progresses. He ends with a bizarre jumble of both.

"Arbitrage" is an intelligent, engaging thriller about the depths of bad decisions made from the arrogance of power. It is a must-see of the 2012 film season.

It seems quite a letdown that Richard Gere's impressive performance in this handsomely mounted 2012 thriller has been relegated to On Demand, but the same fate befell 2011's "Margin Call", another effectively Machiavellian Wall Street-set thriller, probably because the mechanics of cutting big financial deals just doesn't feel all that cinematic despite being terrific showcases for able actors. With his trademark élan in check, he plays Robert Miller, a billionaire Wall Street investment executive whose silken imperturbable manner can charm and kill at the same time. Miller's company is in the middle of a federal audit as he tries to sell it. The problem is that he has illegally borrowed more than $400 million, well beyond the true value of the company. The lender threatens to take his money back, but Miller stops at nothing to keep the fraud under wraps, his family and the IRS in the dark, and his firm functioning more or less as usual.

Miller is simply unflappable no matter what the circumstance is, whether it's negotiating an unethical high financial deal, attending his 60th- birthday party, or spending a few tempestuous hours with his mistress, a French art gallery owner whose neediness makes Miller vulnerable to a moment of truth he cannot control. An unexpected event literally leaves blood on his hands, and a web of deception drops him further into an abyss. Instead of seeking absolution, Miller moves from chilly manipulation to unrepentant criminality. The evolution feels seamless because Miller never sees anything wrong with what he does, and first- time director Nicholas Jarecki does quite a capable job of maintaining the pace and momentum of an internally driven thriller that allows the main character to unravel in a series of dialogue-heavy scenes courtesy of Jarecki's insightful screenplay, an excellent sophomore effort (his first was co-writing 2008's "The Informers" with Bret Easton Ellis).

Although he was a last-minute replacement for Al Pacino (who would have brought an earthier dimension to the role), Gere is smartly cast here because his screen persona has often provided a glacial veneer over a seething core of anger and resentment. Playing Miller allows him to do just that in a most arresting manner that makes him both morally repellent but oddly sympathetic. As the detective intent on getting Miller convicted, Tim Roth is quite effective down to the Columbo-like inquisitiveness and Jersey Shore accent. Nate Parker brings unexpected depth as the moral center of the story, a Harlem kid whom Miller previously helped out of a jam but who now faces much bigger consequences returning the favor. Indie breakout Brit Marling ("Another Earth") affectingly plays Miller's sharply analytical daughter, the chief accountant of his firm who slowly realizes her father's true nature. Susan Sarandon has relatively few scenes as Miller's insulated wife Ellen, but her steely intelligence comes through in the climax. It's worth seeking out.

Nobody does make believe billionaire as well as Richard Gere, something about the way he carries himself encourages audiences to believe he really is that rich, powerful and connected.

Robert Miller is a hedge fund magnate with it all, money, beautiful wife (Sarandon) who dabbles in charity work and a son and daughter (Marling) who both work for him, to differing levels of competency.

Miller has decided to sell his firm to a financial company desperate to plug a gap in their suite of services and products. Talking of gaps, Miller is desperately trying to paper over some financial cracks of his own, borrowing the odd $400 million to ensure pre-sale audits go well.

When presented with the first few images and sentiments, those with a healthy dose of cynicism are just waiting to be introduced to Miller's other life. Enter stage left, the struggling beautiful art dealer, who is being kindly helped by Miller to negotiate her way through the perils of small business ownership. Such assistance being mainly bedroom based will come as no surprise.

Of course modern thrillers are like buses, there is always another one around the corner. What sets this apart is the supporting cast, including Tim Roth as Detective Bryer, desperate to nail at least one bad guy protected behind expensive lawyers. Nate Parker as Jimmy, the person Miller calls when he really needs help and of course his wife played by Susan Sarandon, supportive, self aware and enjoying the fruits of his labour.

Central to the film is Gere, who has not always chosen parts wisely in the past but here plays a character he can really sell to the audience. Morally ambiguous, ruthless yet loyal, he manages to make a character we really should not like, somehow likable. Arguably encouraging questionable and morally perplexing empathy from the viewer, as his choices dwindle to rock and hard place territory.

Gere can act and does so here, Roth manages to convey the woes of the world and is especially good in the first scene with Gere. Not so much a modern fable but a story that evokes that feeling afterwards, how far would you go to protect what you have. Also rather curiously, why would you end up rooting for the bad guy?

Not perfect, Britt Marling perhaps not making the most of her emotional scenes. At times the film lacks a harder edge, would Jimmy ever really be that reasonable. However overall, a cut above the mainstream and well worth two hours of your time.

Summary

A smart, deliciously amoral tale with a strong turn from Gere, choosing a role that suits his talents. Ignored at the box office but hopefully finding a well deserved following at home.

Good script, pacing and an interesting ending to this financial based thriller that does not require you to know that Arbitrage means to 'take advantage of a price difference between two or more markets'.

http://julesmoviereviews.blogspot.co.nz/

It had been a while since I had either seen Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon or Tim Roth in anything noteworthy but to my own surprise, this was being a solid thriller, with truly some great performances by its cast.

It is absolutely true that without its cast this would had been a very formulaic, standard, average, little thriller. As a matter of fact, it more feels like an extended "Law & Order" episode. The characters and developments aren't anything surprising but the movie truly gets made interesting by its cast, who also help to make this a convincing and effective thriller.

I have never even been a too big fan of Richard Gere but he simply was absolutely great in this! He mostly carries this entire movie and he does this by playing a sort of despicable character. So it's a real accomplishment by him that he still managed to turn the main character into a still likable enough one, that you never lost interest in. He doesn't make the right choices throughout the movie but that's what keeps his character interesting and helps to let the movie move along, even during its slower moments.

It's the sort of thriller in which everything starts to go from bad to worse for its main character, when his lies and actions only get him in more and deeper problems and drags those close to him down, along with him.

But really, it remains a far from perfect thriller and still does plenty of things wrong. It does a poor job at handling some of its characters for instance. For example, it heavily under uses the Susan Sarandon character, who could had given the movie a whole other dimension and some more depth with her character. After all, she plays the main character's wife, who has certain knowledge about things that don't come into play until very late into the movie, when things are already starting to wrap up. The whole dynamic between her and the Gere character had much more potential really and I thought it was a real shame this didn't get explored any further and better. Also, I would had loved to have seen more of Susan Sarandon, since she gave away a great performance.

That's a bit of a problem with this entire movie; it just doesn't know how to handle and what to do with certain characters. The Tim Roth character also definitely feels a bit underused. When he shows up you think he is going to play a big and important role for this movie but in fact there are large portions of the movie in which his character plays no role at all. I absolutely loved his scene with Richard Gere and I was hoping for more moments like that, which unfortunately just never came.

I still really enjoyed this thriller and at times was even loving it. It's definitely a better than average genre attempt, despite still having a very standard and familiar type of premise and story in it. So in essence, nothing surprising but it's all still very well made and acted out by its impressive cast, which already is worth the price alone.

7/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

Greetings again from the darkness. Most of us don't tread in the world of corporate greed, deceit and fraud that defines the now four years ago financial crisis. Twenty five years ago Gordon Gekko in Wall Street put a face to corporate greed. Writer/Director Nicholas Jarecki now gives us Robert Miller, as portrayed by Richard Gere, for the face of Wall Street fraud ... the step beyond greed that Bernie Madoff made famous. Toss in a Chappaquiddick-type tragedy and it's abundantly clear that Robert Miller is no modern day saint.

No matter how much we would prefer it to be otherwise, there is something to the charisma and emotional power of the few who seize control as politicians, CEO's and cult leaders ... all subjects of recent films. During this film, we never once doubt that Gere's Miller is a scam artist with power. He is not a good guy, despite his warm smile as he says all the right things to his family and close circle of advisors. We are sickened that he is able to fool so many. Yet, the reason this story is so familiar is that it rings so true.

Watching Miller's house of cards slowly crumble is both fascinating and nerve-racking. We aren't rooting for him, but we still get caught up in his web of deceit. His demented sense of "responsibilities" guide him down the path of betrayal ... a path that stomps on his all-knowing wife, his ultra-trusting daughter, his sensitive mistress, and a young guy just trying to get his life in order.

The supporting cast is strong led by Susan Sarandon as the wife, Brit Marling (Another Earth) as the daughter, and Tim Roth as the crusty NY Detective trying to catch the big fish. However, this is Gere's film and he delivers his best in years. It's also great to see Stuart Margolin, who was so entertaining as Angel in The Rockford Files back in the 70's. Another interesting casting choice has long time "Vanity Fair" editor Graydon Carter as the head of the financial institution looking to purchase Miller's company.

Again, the individual pieces of the story are all quite familiar, but filmmaker Jarecki does a nice job of assembling the pieces in a manner that keep us engaged. It's a nice example of how the rules are different for the rich, and show how the worst of them even think they can get away with murder! (www.MovieReviewsFromTheDark.wordpress.com)