09 June 2016
Money Monster
A film by Jodie Foster
Reviewed by Adam McCormack
Everyone wants to get rich quick and presenter Lee Gates (George Clooney) and his team have found a way to create a successful TV show around this, by making upbeat and aggressive stock tips, combined with some song, dance and general razzamatazz. No matter that the analysis may be superficial, if enough people are watching and react accordingly, the predictions can become self-fulfilling. All this is fine until a recommendation into a high frequency trading company, IBIS, that he describes as “safer than a bank account”, goes badly wrong – apparently due to an algorithmic “glitch” in the firm’s trading activities. Kyle Budwell (Jack O’Connell) has invested all of his $60,000 savings into the company and wants some answers, going to the unprecedented extent of holding Gates hostage on-air (strapped to a suicide vest) until he gets them. From here the tension mounts as the police try to resolve the situation and his studio director (Julia Roberts) seeks to find the truth about IBIS.
Director Jodie Foster has created a very watchable and entertaining film that raises intelligent questions regarding the vulnerability of people who want to circumvent labour and make a fortune, the unscrupulousness of the media and big business, in the way that they disregard either the viewing public or their investors, and the voyeurism of those who will watch an impending tragedy live. George Clooney, not for the first time (Intolerable Cruelty and Up in the Air spring to mind), does a great job of playing an egotistical and urbane personality who struggles with relationships. Even though his life is at risk he cannot stop himself milking the televisual attractions of event for all they are worth. The denouement, in which Clooney and his captor confront the IBIS CEO (Dominic West). has just the right degree of tension and jeopardy, with the pace much better than the somewhat ponderous start.
The film does, however, suffer from not really knowing what it wants to be. It would be an ideal black comedy, and does at times get suitably farcical, but ultimately is more serious than this, failing to hit the satirical highs of, say, Scorsese’s King of Comedy (where Robert de Niro takes Jerry Lewis prisoner). Without a higher level of comedy it becomes harder to ignore some of the plot defects. Is it credible that the hostage taker, who is about to become a father, would want to blow an inheritance in this way? Would the police really be prepared to take calculated risks that seriously endanger the life of a hostage? Finally, the truth about what really was going on at IBIS does not really bear much critical examination. Nevertheless, this is an entertaining film, and at least works as a commentary on some of the ills of the media age.
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