À quel prix?

This movie is frustrating because its has so many of the ingredients needed for a great movie but it's not a great movie and I don't know what the missing ingredient is. But it plods along without impetus. It needs a jolt from a director who would see a great story thats told in a boring way is not story to be retold.

Buried in the Netflix movie graveyard is this little unseen gem about a lawyer (Michael Keaton) who's given the job of figuring out how much compensation to give each family of people who died in the 9/11 attacks.

This is one of those scrappy do-gooder movies like "Erin Brockovich" or "Dark Waters" that pit earnest, well meaning folk against corporate greed, and I'm a total sucker for those kinds of movies. Michael Keaton is perfect to play a role like this, because he's so darn charismatic and likable and easy to root for. Add in Stanley Tucci, who makes everything he's in worth watching, and that's all you really need. But as a bonus, there's excellent work from Amy Ryan and stage actress Laura Benanti. The only acting misstep comes from Tate Donovan, who gets the unenviable task of representing Rich People and who is only lacking a silent villain mustache to turn his character into a total cartoon.

"Worth" goes into the things you'd think a movie like this would: economic and class disparity, the moral ramifications of putting the worth of a human life to a dollar figure, an American system that piles advantages on top of people who already have all the advantages. But it stays smart and understated and never overplays its hand.

Every year I try to see as many movies as I can regardless of how well they're reviewed or whether or not they get any awards attention, and movies like this are why. For every four you see that are forgettable or worse, there's a fifth that makes you glad you found it.

Grade: A.

Worth is not an adventure movie; it is a process movie. The changes are very small; it affects the attorneys, victims, and other advocates.

The individual performancesb Michael Keaton and Stanley Gucci provide gravitas for the entire movie.

There have been hundreds of films and TV shows documenting what happened on 9/11 and to be brutally honest , I stopped watching them years ago because it seems like it has become a bit of an obsession. I only decided to watch Worth because of its cast and it coming from a different angle and I'm quite glad I did .

Michael Keaton plays an attorney in Washington D. C who battles against cynicism, bureaucracy and politics to help the victims of 9/11 and although that sounds it a little dull , it really isn't.

There is no doubt that the best thing about this film is the performances from Michael Keaton and Stanley Tucci. Tucci probably being the better of the two .

There are no shock tactics used in this film which is good because we've seen it all before.

Instead we get a view of how it was almost impossible to put a price on the lives of the people who died or were injured in the terrorist attack.

One scene stuck with me . They we discussing compensation with the representatives of highly paid workers and low paid workers and true to type the latter just wanted as much money as the could possible squeeze out of the government and the lower paid were totally grateful at their offers .

This won't be everyone's cup of tea because it's very dialogue heavy but I enjoyed it much more than I was expecting.

It's set from 2001 to 2003 in Washington, D. C. and New York City and tells the story of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund through the eyes of its Special Master, Kenneth Feinberg. The movie is "based on" Feinberg's book, "What is Life worth"?

The movie opens by setting up Kenneth Feinberg's (Michael Keaton) bona fides as an expert on compensation for loss of life from a sudden loss of life by accident or violence. After 9/11, Feinberg, a longtime Democrat who had worked for Ted Kennedy, is asked by Attorney General John Ashcroft (Victor Slezak) to be the Special Master for the compensation fund. Feinberg welcomes the invitation, and with the help of his assistant, Camille Biros (Amy Ryan), and staffers Priya Khundi (Shunori Ramanathan) and Darryl Barnes (Ato Blankson-Wood), begins the process of meeting the claimants.

Initially, Feinberg is an insensitive number-cruncher who alienates the relatives of those who lost family members. We hear snippets of many stories of victims and follow a few more extended stories. These include the gay partner of a victim who does not fit the "formula" because Virginia, where they lived, did not recognize civil unions. Another involved the widow and children of a firefighter who had other children the widow presumably did not know about. Other characters are critics of the Fund's rules, Charles Wolf (Stanley Tucci), and a lawyer representing only the highest-income families, Lee Quinn (Tate Donovan).

The storyline follows Feinberg's transition to greater empathy and the challenge to get at least 80% of the claimants to sign on to the Fund by the deadline.

At some levels, this is a heartwarming story of growing empathy. However, I wondered what the real Kenneth Feinberg thought of his depiction. In the beginning, he's a tone-deaf bureaucrat, which seems odd for someone reputed to be an expert in compensation cases that requires meetings with survivors. This rattled my believability gauge, which is always crucial for me in biopics. In addition, I found Keaton's "Boston" accent more distracting than reinforcing. And the ending surge to the finish line seemed a bit pat.

But I found the story engaging and a good reminder of the chaos and myriad stories that emerged from 9/11.