Arbitrage - Macht ist das beste Alibi

"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.

Richard Gere in his probably best performance ever, confident, tense, deep. The veteran actor used all his qualities in this very gripping "Arbitrage", a drama about crazy and cynical calculations behind Wall Street intrigues. Arbitrage asks the viewer to sympathize with a guy

cheating and trying to cover terrible things and shows many different characters, such as hard-working cops, an immaculate daughter, ruthless business partners, as well as a suffering wife. There are holes in the plot but the audience doesn't mind too much, because of the perfect tension and the detailed script. Gere is perfect, he gets to show real desperation, anger and discomfort at the same time. Arbitrage is special and different from other similar movies due to its refusal to condemn this world.

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'.

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Arbitrage is one of the rarest thrillers around today – a morality tale that propels its gripping story through poor character choices and the ensuing aftermath rather than left-field twists and pointless action. The complexity of the characters on display in director Nicolas Jarecki's feature debut (and the fine actors who bring them to life) are fascinating to behold and deliciously infuriating in the way that the script forces you to rationalize on their behalf, even when they perpetrate some of the worst crimes imaginable.

The plot of Arbitrage is at its core very basic, but from that seemingly simplistic foundation springs forth a disastrous series of errors of near Shakespearian proportion, ultimately avoidable as they all turn out to be. We first meet with hedge fund manager Robert Miller as he hounds his subordinate to track down the CEO of a rival corporation for a final authorizing signature that will conclude the sale of his firm. Unbeknownst to everyone but him and his accountant, Miller has committed fraud and cooked the books to hide a disastrous investment in a Russian copper operation. Through this sale he can more than cover his losses and retire a multi-millionaire, but after another mistake (this time on a far more personal level) his transgressions at work pale in comparison.

It is through Gere's remarkable performance that we come to sympathize with a man who is not only a liar and a fraud that uses those he loves and dispose of those he needs without a second thought, but who also descends into something far worse: a murderer (at least in the eyes of the law). However, we can see deep down he loves his family, will right all financial wrongs with the sale of his business without anyone being hurt and mostly had non-malicious intentions when fleeing the scene of his crime. We become so caught up in this character's predicament and the world in which he thrives is so equally callous and ugly he comes off as part saint despite being everything an average person despises – he is the one percent and essentially rides above the law.

Having given up his mantle of A-list leading man some time ago, Gere, instead of rushing headfirst into subpar roles that would keep him somewhat in the spotlight, has become a superb actor in his own right choosing interesting projects from The Hoax to The Hunting Party. His performance in Arbitrage is perhaps his best work ever, exuding charisma, spewing malice and emanating explosive energy at the perfect junctures. Jarecki's script and Gere's work is the perfect marriage of actor and material.

The supporting cast is equally superb. Susan Sarandon does a great deal with limited screen time as Robert's wife, as does Brit Marling as his daughter and unofficial partner at the firm. Tim Roth does his evil thing without missing a beat as a determined and justice-blurring cop (though his accent slips a few times) and relative unknown Nate Parker as a past connection of Robert's who plays an pivotal (and emotionally potent) role in the deception does scene-stealing work.

Conjointly as is the case with ludicrous revelations and senseless violence, in most thrillers a last-act imposition occurs, stripping any good will that may have been awarded and leaving nothing but a sour taste. Arbitrage has a perfect – perfect – ending and is immediately preceded with two fascinating examinations of character in both Miller's wife and the buyer of his firm. The overarching theme amongst these catharses is that money rules all, but the execution and timing of both comes off as nothing close to hollow.

It is easy to fathom certain viewers being bored or put off by the deliberate pacing and stylistic choices Arbitrage makes, but that is no fault of this tense and involving film but rather of the spoiled, ADD generation that can't make it through 100 minutes of cinema without multiple shootouts, riveting as it all is. As the antidote to bland Hollywood white-knuckle escapism, Arbitrage is the sublime archetype, substantive and lasting and proving that smarts and dedicated performers can drive a compelling narrative.