“Arbitrage” is a well dressed thriller, featuring a
confident Richard Gere--now in his early sixties but still attractive and
sporting a lush head of silver hair—as a rich businessman who gets tangled up
in a murder plot. There’s nothing technically wrong with the movie—written and
directed by Nicholas Jarecki—it’s just ill inspired and instantly forgettable.
“Arbitrage” is neither good nor bad but just sits there, frozen in some kind of
movie purgatory. It’s like a coma patient.
Gere plays Robert Miller, a hedge fund magnate with a
picture perfect life. He has a supportive wife, Ellen (a greatly underused
Susan Sarandon) and two grown up kids that work with him. They go to a lot of
charity and political events and are respected by the community. However, not
surprisingly, we find out Robert has a mistress, a local up and coming artist
named Julie (Laetitia Casta). Julie is mad at Robert for not spending more time
with her and one night while they’re driving together they get in a car crash
and Julie dies. Robert now has to cover this up. To make things more stressful
he’s also in the midst of selling his trading company, which was affected by
the recession. Now, I should point out, Jarecki’s movie is asking us to
sympathize with a rich old white man, which I just couldn’t do. But, moving on.
What we have here are two thriller premises—one involving
finance, the other involving murder and cover up-- intertwined with one
another. The two are potentially intriguing on their own but together they
undermine each other. So, what we’re left with are bland businessman scenes,
and generic cover up thriller plot points. The picture lacks suspense and excitement,
which might have been OK if there was some humor, but “Arbitrage” takes itself
seriously and therefore the movie is joyless and emotionally neutered. It’s a
hollow shell of a film.
Richard Gere does what he can, in fact at times he seems to
rise above the material, but ultimately he doesn’t have enough stability.
Meanwhile, the supporting actors seem disinterested, like they’re there to pick
up a paycheck. Even Jarecki seems disinterested, his direction lacking oomph
and his screenplay going through the motions, jumping through the necessary
hoops to get to the end.
Speaking of the ending. In an attempt to be a little
ambiguous, the movie simply cuts off, which might have worked if the movie had
amounted to more but since it doesn’t, the sudden cutting off makes “Arbitrage”
even more forgettable.
2/4
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