Movie Review Arbitrage

Arbitrage (2012) 

Directed by Nicholas Jarecki 

Written by Nicholas Jarecki 

Starring Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon, Tim Roth, Laetitia Costa, Nate Parker 

Release Date September 14th, 2012 

Published December 15th, 2012

Director's enjoy taking Richard Gere and put the screws to him. Gere's handsome visage, his easy charm makes him the perfect target for the pent up jealousies of lesser men. "American Gigolo," "Unfaithful," even something as tacky as "An Officer and a Gentleman," each turn on Gere's great looks and charm being tested by whatever a writer and director could throw at him.

Taking Gere, giving him power and money, then turning the heat up on him, and watching him squirm is part of the fun of casting Richard Gere in "Arbitrage," a thriller that teases a Bernie Madoff-esque story of corporate intrigue that turns on a "Bonfire of the Vanities," style murder plot.

In "Arbitrage" Mr. Gere stars as Richard Miller, a corporate titan who risked everything on a big bet and lost. We know that, he knows that but lucky for him, no one else knows just how bad the loss really was. Miller is about to sell a company that in reality has no assets and won't have any until it's sold.

It's a huge gamble, one big enough to spin a very compelling story of corporate intrigue. However "Arbitrage, it turns out, has other ideas in mind. Despite indicating a happy marriage and life as a happy, 60 plus year old grandfather, Miller has a secret life with a secret girlfriend (Laetitia Casta), as billionaire gamblers are wont to have.

When that girlfriend is killed in a car accident caused by his driving while sleepy, Miller initiates a cover up. The cover up, involving the son of a late friend, well-played by Nate Parker, at first seems like a distraction but quickly evolves into the focus of the film as a determined, class warrior cop (Tim Roth) makes a point of trying to nail the billionaire.

So you see, the Madoff stuff, the corporate intrigue is actually the distraction; it is the way of upping the ante and turning up the heat. We come to watch Gere squirm and writer-director Nicholas Jarecki delivers in fine fashion. Gere hasn't squirmed so entertainingly since the greatly underappreciated 2007 con-man movie "The Hoax."

"Arbitrage" is right up Gere's alley; he's handsome and successful on the surface and deviously rotting on the inside. He's the candy coating over the rotten fruit of a corporate titan. Watching him get the screws put to him is highly entertaining and waiting to see if he can wiggle his way out of it all is just as delicious.

Do you root for him to get away with it? That is very much in the eye of the beholder. One of the great things about "Arbitrage" is that it never begs sympathy nor does it try to tempt your sympathy; the film offers you the opportunity to wallow in the ugly behavior of Gere's corporate titan or judge him guilty and hope for him to be properly shamed.

The ending of "Arbitrage" somehow manages to satisfy all sides. There is a near perfect ambiguity to the ending that allows everyone to feel whatever they like about the character and the story. I won't say more in order to avoid spoilers, the film is after all something of a thriller and requires a bit of mystery to be fully enjoyed.

The bottom line is that "Arbitrage" is a highly entertaining Richard Gere movie. We get to see Gere twist and sweat and generally gutted and whether you root for the punishment or root for him to escape, you will be incredibly entertained throughout. Gere is the perfect actor onto which we can project our jealousies or our hopes.

His face brings with it privilege and based on your feelings toward the privileged you can enjoy watching him sweat or secretly root for him to skate. Few actors have ever possessed such unique qualities, the ability to suffer and deserve it and to suffer and have us root for it to end.

Movie Review The Great Debaters

The Great Debaters (2007) 

Directed by Denzel Washington 

Written by Robert Eisele 

Starring Denzel Washington, Forest Whitaker, Nate Parker, Jurnee Smollett, Denzel Parker, John Heard 

Release Date December 25th, 2007

Published December 24th, 2007 

Melvin B. Tolson is a renowned orator and poet. To find that he was also a champion debater and a teacher of the spoken word is no surprise. Nor is it all that surprising that the students of Mr. Tolson would go on to be champions of civil rights, leaders of men and women and fighters for social justice. Removing this surprise, a film about Mr. Tolson and his students is an admirable yet redundant act.

Fair to admit that Mr. Tolson's acts were more than 70 years ago and thus could use a proper reminding of. However, couldn't we get a more fitting reminder than a conventional Hollywood melodrama? We are talking about some very important history here. Glossing it over with superstar actors and facile, sports movie cliches seems inappropriate at best, blasphemous at worst.

Don't get me wrong, there is a lot of good here. Denzel Washington is the perfect actor to capture the innate intelligence and extraordinary eloquence of Melvin Tolson. Forest Whitaker as the President of Wiley College and the father of one of the debaters, Denzel Whitaker (no relation), is typically Forest Whitaker, a powerful, calming presence.

And yet, I am troubled by much of this well meaning, adequately crafted film. The whole is far too simplistic, playing out serious, historic instances with a typically Hollywood sheen. The typical three act structure with a third act featuring a false crisis/false dawn; real crisis/real dawn scenario seems too prosaic for something as important as what Tolson and his team accomplished.

Tacking on a love story between two of the debaters, Jurnee Smollett and Nate Parker, only makes this already false movie feel less authentic. Both young actors acquit themselves well in the debate scenes, with Smollett shining with a powerful speech on social justice that will have many dabbing away tears, but the love story makes fools of both. It was simply false and unnecessary, a nod to what is expected of modern Hollywood and not what was best for telling this story.

Worse yet is the sports movie aspects of The Great Debaters. As the Wiley College team begins a series of scheduled debates the focus on what is being argued is lost in the cliché of who wins and loses and tracking the wins and losses as if this were a sporting event. It may be true that Tolson and the tiny African American enclave of Marshall Texas took the tact of keeping score, but in the film the device cheapens and distracts.

If removing the conventional inclusion of the love story and the sports movie clichés would render the material un-filmable, then so be it. Maybe this story just wasn't meant to be told in a typically Hollywood fashion. A better form would be the documentary, one where Mr. Washington and Mr. Whitaker could tell the story of the Wiley College debaters without the distraction of melodrama and sports movie score keeping.

The Great Debaters fails for being unoriginal about a wholly original group of characters. It fails to assume the gravitas of its subject and as such, demeans it.