Worth

I want to be sure you watch it. Films like this are less here for ratings than they are to tell us something we need to be reminded of.

With the 20th September 11th about to arrive it's important we remember as much as we can about the people who were lost and their families who are devastated as a result.

This film tells their stories through the eyes of one man who had to be convinced that the 9/11 victims fund was more about the victims than it was about the fund.

His realization and resulting humanity is an account of decency that will help us remember that we can still be kind and decent to each other and when times are tough maybe that's the most important thing we can be to each other.

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.

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.

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.

Worth is an incredibly human story that shows just how complicated the world can get when you ask one simple question; what is the value of a life?

I'm sure that everyone associated with this project felt a great pressure to do the subject matter justice and I genuinely feel they did that. Worth is a superbly constructed movie with excellent pacing which allows you the time to experience the weight of the situation and the emotions of the people involved without ever feeling too slow or getting bogged down. This is a genuine achievement, as it's essentially a film about people talking in rooms and those are notoriously difficult films to make. The editor and all those involved in the final cut certainly deserve a lot of credit for that.

The acting is as good as you would expect it to be. This is certainly Keaton's movie, as his character is the focal point that the story returns to on a regular basis, and he carries that with his usual brilliance, but it must be said that there isn't a single bad performance in this movie. Everyone is fantastic and I feel this is the kind of film where if one person had been bad, it would have taken you out of the whole thing ... I was in it from start to finish.

Whatever your political views, I think this is an interesting look into a world that will be foreign to most of us, but we all need to understand.

8/10.