Expert moviegoers are cultivated to obey the first rule of film law - to always empathize and root for the hero of a film. Arbitrage is a loophole to this amendment; it provides the cruelest protagonist in recent years - a fiend so tyrannical he would shut down an orphanage if it yielded a profit.
Arbitrage tells the tragedy of Robert Miller (Richard Gere, The Double), a Wall Street shark who could have apprenticed beneath Gordon Gekko. Miller frauds anyone he has to, including Brooke (Brit Marling, Sound of My Voice), his daughter and chief financial officer of the corporation. Gere supplies one of his soundest performances, manifesting Miller as an aging tycoon who personally plummets himself into the depths of moral destruction.
The film opens on a light note. It's Miller's 60th birthday; he's depicted as a family man partnered with his daughter in the business. Writer-director Nicholas Jarecki (The Weight) never frees Miller from a life of self-desolation.
Miller cheats on his lifelong wife, Ellen (Susan Sarandon, Robot & Frank) with a young artist, Julie (Laetitia Casta, War of the Buttons). Ellen knows of the affair, but forlornly accepts it as a part of the rich-marriage package.
Just when the plot seems revealed, another curveball is thrown. Miller takes Julie for a late night drive, only to get into an accident from falling asleep at the wheel and in turn killing Julie. Miller isn't worried about a homicide charge; rather, the last thing he wants is bad media coverage. He escapes the wreckage with a bleeding head and cracked ribs, gets picked up by his friend Jimmy (Nate Parker, Red Tails) and thinks all business is settled.
It isn't. A loud-mouthed, yet wholehearted Detective Bryer (Time Roth, Lie to Me) catches Miller's scent quickly. Now his fate is rested upon Jimmy's shoulders and whether or not Bryer can convince him to testify against Miller.
Here is where most films mechanically supply needless action in an attempt to spice up the conflict, but not Arbitrage.
Instead, it courageously travels down the traditional path of dialogue warfare, as the characters struggle to fight for their personal beliefs. Miller wants his empire to pass its audit and then transfer power down to Brooke. Detective Bryer wants justice suitably dished out to the upper class for once. And Jimmy is glued in the center, only wishing to move south with his girl and run an Applebee's.
There's no scuffing it - Gere was perfectly cast here. It's been reported he replaced Al Pacino during pre-production, which first appears as a downgrade. But Gere's natural physique is uncannily convincing as a corrupt billionaire. His slicked-back grey hair has rested in the same place for decades, and his darkened, squinted eyes always appear to be concealing secrets.
Roth also plays his best role of recent memory, somehow disguising his hometown London accent and transforming into the restless detective from Brooklyn. But above all, Roth is able to play a down-to-Earth cop who wants to convict Miller for ethical obligations, not simply because the plot tells him to do so.
Arbitrage is a real chin-bruiser - a brilliant thriller that will have people covering their mouths in stunned bewilderment. Jarecki filled his casting slates with docile actors who play believable characters and also wrote them smart dialogue that fiercely carries the film's weight. It's a treat to finally find a movie that capably mixes suspense and excitement and does so without aimless shootouts or noisy chase scenes. Arbitrage subtly mocks the action-thriller genre by allowing its words to speak louder than guns or car chases ever could.
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