Arbitrage screened to a strong reception at this year's Sundance Film Festival, and it opened in limited release and on VOD a couple weeks ago. It stars Richard Gere among other recognizable names as a sleazy Wall Street exec-type trying to maintain secrets both professionally and personally.
I don't normally like to compare one film to another when they are largely unrelated, but I think there are enough similarities between Arbitrage and last year's Sundance hit and eventual Oscar nominee Margin Call that the comparison is legitimate, although there is a whole other facet to Arbitrage that falls equally flat.
What made Margin Call fascinating was that complicated, highbrow financial discussions became thrilling (despite not always knowing what was being discussed) due to pacing, excellent dialogue, and the widespread implications the impending doom had on those responsible, and innocent victims as well. What Arbitrage gives us is basically one man - one man possessing almost no likeable qualities. The financial dialogue is flat and repetitive, and thus boring, causing the film to struggle where Margin Call thrived.
Gere plays Robert Miller, a hedge-fund manager in the midst of completing a high stakes sale of one of his companies assets. Doctored books and borrowed money resulting from a failed, under the table investment have Miller backed into a corner, desperately trying to hide his shady dealings from everyone, including his daughter (Brit Marling - who also happens to be the company's CFO), long enough for the deal to finalize.
Things become even more complicated for Miller after he's implicated in a Chappaquiddick like incident that leads to an extensive investigation by Detective Bryer (Tim Roth).
It's disappointing how standard Arbitrage is. There are some strong moments in terms of acting from Gere and particularly Roth, but in terms of story, structure, and so-called twists (we basically are know everything that's happening in real time, so it's hard to actually be surprised by anything), it's incredibly ordinary. The cinematography looks like something you could see in any number of Law and Order type television shows on a weekly basis (it's actually ironic that a defense attorney in the film is frequently used as a defense attorney in Law and Order Special Victim's Unit).
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First time helmer Nicholas Jarecki's direction seems to only be concerned with complementing the written material. Jarecki feels the need to show the audience damn near everything that's happening, making for some ugly scenes in terms of cutting and editing. There are also a handful of instances where characters are shown speaking from behind when it's obvious their mouths weren't moving.
Gere's Miller is so despicable from the beginning that I didn't care what happened to him at all. He only gets worse as he tries to cover his tracks. This is no knock on Gere, who was perfectly cast - the character is just too hard to get invested in. There is repetitive dialogue about Miller doing what he's doing to protect the many people who will get hurt, which ends up coming off as a poor attempt to humanize the character.
An additional problem is we are given only one character, played by Nate Parker, that's sympathetic because he is unknowingly dragged into the whole mess. You'd like to feel sorry for Marling's daughter character, but the performance is just too dull to pull anyone in. Roth is a lot of fun to watch, but his narrative is done in by a horrible decision that is hard to swallow considering how impressive a detective he's presented as.
Arbitrage isn't anywhere near as thrilling as it purports to be. Prime-time television is just as good an option: you'll just have to sacrifice a couple big names and a bit of acting quality.
4/11