El maestro del dinero

Money Monster (2016)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Lee Gates (George Clooney) is a hot shot financial TV personality who offers up advice on what stocks to buy and which ones to sell. His director (Julia Roberts) is on her last show when they've scored an interview with a big CEO but when he backs out they don't realize how worst the day is going to get. Soon Kyle Budwell (Jack O'Connell) bursts into their studio and on live television he takes over the show carrying a gun and a bomb.

MONEY MONSTER comes from director Jodie Foster and I must admit that I went into it with incredibly high expectations. Whether people like it or not Clooney had done many great movies and delivered many great performances over the past decade so I thought with him and Foster together we'd get a hard-hitting drama that would take down the ugly side of Wall Street. Well, the movie was entertaining while you watched it but afterwards I couldn't help but feel extremely disappointed because when you get down to it the film was pretty shallow.

There's a great film hidden somewhere in here but it seems that they had to simple everything down so that your average viewer wouldn't get lost. I can only imagine what this could have been if someone like the late Sidney Lumet had been able to make it and the screenplay was allowed to be much more hard hitting and really go after the bad guys. This film starts off on a highly unlikely plot device (getting into the studio so easily) and by the final act it completely falls apart with its rather stupid plot twists.

With that said, the movie is still slightly entertaining to a point. Foster does a good job in her directing duties but there's no question that a new screenplay was needed. Both Clooney and Roberts work extremely well together and both give fine performances. Clooney does a good job at playing the charm but as the drama builds he also manages to sell that. O'Connell is also very good in his role of the man who finds himself in a desperate place so he reaches for a rather dumb idea.

MONEY MONSTER has its heart in the right place but it just seems like one of those movies that doesn't want to be too serious or too finger pointing and instead of any hard hitting drama and questions we're just left with a rather mindless action film with an unlikely plot. It's really too bad because with the talent involved this should have been so much better.

If someone were to enter your home and steal from you, naturally, you'd be angry. You'd want to see that person caught and to pay for the crime and, if possible, to get your money back. When someone commits financial crimes, it's a little harder to accomplish all that, but the first step after the crime (or unethical behavior) comes to light is to assign blame. It also happens to be cathartic. As cathartic as movies can be, they've been a useful tool over the years for venting our collective rage over such misuse of our money and/or showing us how these things happen. Some of the better and/or more notable examples include "Trading Places" (1983), "Wall Street" (1987), "Barbarians at the Gate" (1993), "Boiler Room" (2000), "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room" (2005), "Capitalism: A Love Story" (2009), "Margin Call" (2011), "Arbitrage" (2012), "The Wolf of Wall Street" (2013) and, in 2015 alone, "99 Homes" and the Best Picture Oscar nominee "The Big Short". 2016 brings us "Money Monster" (R, 1:38), starring Oscar winners George Clooney and Julia Roberts and directed by 2-time winner Jodie Foster.

Clooney is Lee Gates, the cocky and flamboyant host of a financially-themed NYC-based TV show called "Money Monster". It's high finance meets entertainment (similar to CNBC's "Mad Money", hosted by Jim Cramer) and it features Lee and his oversized personality both advising and amusing investors. Lee's long-time producer, Patty Fenn (Julia Roberts), keeps things stock-ticking along but is suddenly forced to become a hostage negotiator, crisis manager and investigative journalist when a man with a gun and a bomb takes over the studio (during a live broadcast!) and takes Lee hostage. Viewers first think that this is just another one of Lee's on-air stunts, but it's all too real (even though it's just a movie, of course).

The desperate, well-armed man is Kyle Budwell (Jack O'Connell, from Angelina Jolie's 2014 WWII epic "Unbroken"), an ordinary working man who lost his nest egg of $60,000 after investing in a stock that Lee recommended on the air, with his usual showmanship and a little hyperbole. The day after the company loses $800,000,000, Kyle holds his gun to Lee's head and demands answers. The company's public relations COO, Diane Lester (Caitriona Balfe) does a live interview with Lee, but simply spouts corporate rhetoric about a mysterious computer glitch, while CEO Walt Camby (Dominic West) is MIA.

As Lee wears an explosive vest which Kyle threatens to detonate, Lee and Patty use their professional talents to satisfy Kyle's demands that he be able to air his grievances publicly and try to diffuse the situation by getting him some real answers. Outside the studio, Patty has help from staffers Ron and Bree (Christopher Denham and Condola Rashad) and the police, under Captain Powell (Giancarlo Esposito from TV's "Breaking Bad" and "Revolution"), strategize. While Ron is (literally) running around town, Bree keeps an eye on the police. The NYPD bring in Kyle's girlfriend (Emily Meade) to try to talk her boyfriend down, which doesn't exactly go well, and then they hatch a risky plan, to which Lee would certainly object, if he knew about it. Diane does her level best to get Lee and Kyle the answers they seek, but is stymied by CFO Avery Goodloe (Dennis Boutsikaris) and with their mutual boss traveling and being incommunicado. The characters (and Movie Fans) eventually get some answers, but only after scenes in South Korea, Iceland and South Africa and back in the Big Apple after Camby's plane finally lands.

"Money Monster" is a taut and entertaining thriller. Within the film's economical running time, Foster keeps things moving and injects several lighter moments, while also managing excellent character development, which her perfectly-cast and very talented actors sell with aplomb. The script, which was developed by three different writers over the course of more than three years, features dialog that feels true, but packs an unrealistic amount of investigative success into a very narrow time frame. All this results in an indictment of some financial practices which doesn't simply trash capitalism, and a message movie which never forgets that is must entertain in order to deliver its timely message effectively. "B+"

In Money Monster, George Clooney plays a TV presenter who is taken hostage live on camera by a desperate young man played by the brilliant Jack O'Connell. I really enjoyed this film; finding it thrilling and well paced throughout. However, it falls short of being completely satisfying.

Six months ago, The Big Short - a far superior film - attempted to tackle the full complexity of the 2008 financial crisis and its causes and did so in a way that was both enlightening and entertaining. Money Monster is more like Phone Booth. In this movie the credit crunch is merely the setting for a tense thrill ride; which is OK except it feels like it's aiming to be more substantial.

I've heard Jodie Foster, the director, say that the seventies will always be her favourite era because movies took such risks back then. Her key influences here are clearly Network and Dog Day Afternoon. Perhaps this is the problem. It feels like a 1970s style take on a 21st Century issue. Thanks in part to other recent movies we already have a more sophisticated appreciation of the reality of the financial sector.

But I still really enjoyed Money Monster. George Clooney strikes the right balance as the likable scoundrel who just needs a gun to the head in order to realise how far down the wrong path he has travelled. And Jack O'Connell is probably my favourite actor of this decade. Just as he did in Starred Up or Eden Lake, this young man threatens to break though the screen and grab hold of you. Electrifying.

In the end I see this film as a fable and a romp. It is lots of fun. The ending just seemed a bit Hollywood. If you want to see a film that explores the impact that the financial crisis had on regular people I highly recommend the underrated 99 Homes.

There are a couple of things to note right up front about Money Monster, the first film directed by Jodie Foster in quite some time and reuniting Clooney and Roberts (remember them from the Ocean's Eleven flicks? or, you know, the two they were in together? good times) - first, I think it's important that if you do decide to go see this movie, see it in a theater (I'd say a matinée price works best, maybe not quite full price). It's the kind of movie that Lynda Obst has outlined in her book 'Sleepless in Hollywood' as being as something of an endangered species: the middle budget Hollywood genre movie with some big name stars and a plot that's appealing to a mass audience (so it's not quite an "indie" movie, but it's not something that crosses 100 million with elaborate special effects).

Though these movies became a bit tiring (or more than a bit depending on who you are) by the early 00's, in the landscape where there's either comic book movies (Marvel, DC, etc) or comic book movies in look and tone as franchises (Fast & Furious, Hunger Games, etc), a story like this where a guy holds a Jim Kramer type of cable 'news' personality and his crew hostage on live TV seems almost refreshing, at least as far as being something that's only pretense is that, you know, the economy collapsed not too long ago and confidence in things like the stock market should suck (though it seemed to have rebounded not too soon after 2008), and it's made professionally.

The other thing to note here is that just because it's a highly entertaining dramatic thriller as far as the nuts-and-bolts of such a thing are put together - the actors are just right, with Roberts being the anchor for things to not get out of control as the director of the show, and even small players like Dominic West as the CEO of the company that (seemingly) screwed over Jack O'Connell's gun-and-bomb toting show hijacker, and Clooney's Clooney so that's good - it doesn't meant there aren't flaws.

You've seen this before if you've seen, I don't know, Dog Day Afternoon or John Q (the latter's lessor than this but you may get an idea, the "Just hostage-taker" scenario), and even Inside Man, which featured Foster in a supporting role. Things to do with logic like the amount of security that should/would be in an area where a major cable show is being produced, or how the whole last third unfolds (and if you've seen the trailer, and it's hard to avoid it if you've been to the movies in the past few months, it shows you this section in pieces so you anticipate it) is implausible.

But there's a lot of good drama to mine here, and buried underneath its quick and fast-paced plot mechanics it does have something to say about not just how the American people continually get duped into things like going for stocks (or at least the ones who can afford it or try to like O'Connell's working class character), but the power of celebrity. There's a wonderful little scene where Clooney's Lee Gates tries to dissuade this bomb-that's-going-to-go-off scenario by talking to the tens of millions (I should think more, depending on who has cable around the world, but I digress) and appeals to them to contribute money so that the stock can bulk up for the company that screwed over O'Connell's character. It's the kind of performance where it feels like a performance, but in a good way: it's self-knowing and Clooney plays up to it, and when the outcome of this happens (and it's not pleasant) the emphasis on this whole 'image' that Lee Gates has perpetuated comes back to bite him in the ass.

So there's a lot of little sections that work and good character actors sprinkled throughout (Esposito, Jim Warden, John Ventimiglia), and it all boosts up what is fairly conventional and yet everything is there for the drama of this type of movie. Its even funny, in a bleak, sardonic sort of way, in a few moments (and one that's kind of weak, let's say it involves a sort of cream for your area that's, oh nevermind). I wish it was a little more strong with certain story details, but it's comforting in a way even as character yell and curse and stand-offs happen and rise and fall. Put it another way, if you want a less 'cluttered' take on stock fraud than The Big Short, look here, and if you want to spend some time away and to watch something with a few good Hollywood superstars, it's good on that end.

This is one of few real time films -meaning the flow of events matches the duration of the film- that is quite successful in keeping the viewer's attention all along, and Jodie Foster is very efficient as a director presenting what seems initially a daunting technical subject (how a computer "glitch" causes an 800 Million Dollar loss to shareholders in a public traded company) as a dramatic thriller that never looses pace.

The cast is excellent, Julia Roberts as the ever conscious producer calculating how each camera angle is best to follow on the unfolding live drama, George Clooney in one of his finest roles as the careless theatrical advice giver of the money program who gradually comes to realize how damaging his show is to the masses (in one particular touching scene he is in the street in NY and sees on-lookers imitating his dance moves on the show, and he becomes aware of what a buffoon he is), and finally Jack O'Connel who is very convincing as the candid investor who really wants to know how "the system" works (casting him was an inspired choice, he is not a well-known actor so he adds more credibility to the character he plays, a simple man from the street who looses all his money in Wall Street). None of the main or even secondary characters in the film are one dimensional, they have their problems (like lonely dinners for some) and concerns and values, whether it is the camera man or the public relations lady officer reporting to the big CEO, or even the main police officers in charge, all are multi-dimensional characters and their human aspects are not ignored.

Even though the film deals with a serious subject, an eye opener leading one to wonder about the real money monsters out there, it remains an excellent thriller with top class actors.