Arbitrage

In the wake of the global financial crisis of recent years, the rise of the Occupy movement, and high-profile fraudsters like Bernie Madoff, who bilked investors out of billions of dollars, has come the need of fiction to better represent the reality that today's audiences are faced with, and writer-director Nicholas Jarecki aims to do just that with 'Arbitrage.'

It's very near the end of 2012; so, unless you're watching 'The Expendables 2,' gone are the days when the bad guy was some vaguely Eastern European troublemaker with a nuclear weapon, or some other relic of the Cold War, bent on the destruction of America. No, an inspired-by-the-times kind of film like 'Arbitrage' sees today's villains as the unscrupulous ones working on Wall Street, or otherwise recklessly playing with huge sums of money: investment bankers, stockbrokers, hedge fund managers – the callous one percent, basically. Given the breadth of its impact, the financial crisis and its origins have recently become almost a subgenre unto itself, what with features like 'Margin Call' and the HBO television movie 'Too Big to Fail,' seeking to examine how the crisis came about.

And in Jarecki's tale of a wealthy and successful venture capitalist in the midst of dual crises, the filmmaker seeks to subtly examine the goings on behind the curtain of morality for those whose entire life is just one clever negotiation after the next. Richard Gere plays Robert Miller, the aforementioned venture capitalist, whose attempt to sell his company is nearly undone by nothing short of a case of involuntary manslaughter. Adding to the tension is the fact that Miller has been operating his company fraudulently for quite some time, and the hundreds of millions of dollars of other people's money he's been playing with has mostly vanished, due to some unfortunate circumstances beyond his control. To cover this up, Miller's cooked his books as best he can, borrowed from an increasingly impatient colleague and is waiting on an audit to clear his company's sale that will wipe out all his wrong-doing, but may wind up fracturing the relationship he has with his daughter/partner, Brooke – played by 'Sound of My Voice' actor and co-writer, Brit Marling.

The plot unfolds during what are intended to be the last and most important days of Miller's company, and, therefore his legacy, his livelihood and the future of his family are at stake. But the legacy is false; Miller's infidelities and various shady financial practices gradually threaten to become known, and undo all of his machinations. At one point, Miller weighs his options only to realize that while the accidental death he was involved with will carry the lesser sentence, the notoriety and scandal emanating from it would completely unravel the sale of his company – thereby exposing the falsehoods being covered up there. The foundation of the film's tension is split equally between the police detective played by Tim Roth, who suspects Miller of playing some part in the death of an art dealer, and the seemingly endless back-and-forth between the Miller's company and the intended purchaser.

'Arbitrage' works largely by being such a tight, compact story that, despite a portion of its subject matter being perceived as dry to some, the plot speeds by at a breakneck pace. It's only later that the film's subtleties and larger implications begin to come into focus. Much of the narrative plays out like the other side of an episode of 'Law & Order,' jumping from one confrontational conversation to the next, each hinging on one character's perception of the other, which is then used to out-negotiate their adversary and procure a victory – which, in this case, is often about much more than just money. But that's how Jarecki's characters – Robert Miller, in particular – perceive their problems: There's no predicament for which money is not the solution. The only question is how much is it going to cost. And in Jarecki's screenplay, this is the biggest indictment made against those who wield great power and influence simply due to their wealth. Whether he's dealing with his wife – played wonderfully here by Susan Sarandon – a business rival, the police, or even, most egregiously, the down-on-his-luck son of a former associate, to Miller, it's all just one simple negotiation after another.

To his credit, Jarecki makes excellent use of his cast; Gere, despite playing a Madoff-esque character, pulls off the unexpected by actually making the audience connect with, and feel sympathy for a guy who has begun to see his world unravel, after making moral compromise after moral compromise. Meanwhile Susan Sarandon manages to do great things with what little screen time she's given, particularly when dealing with the potential fallout of her husband's situation. Additionally, Roth is rather compelling as the police detective who has more in common with Robert Miller than he'd probably like to admit. Altogether, the parts add up to quite a compelling whole – one thing 'Arbitrage' will not leave you feeling is boredom.

Still, despite the sense that Jarecki is hinting at a bigger picture, it comes off as being a little too concealed behind the house-of-cards situation Gere's character is in. The consequence of Miller so convincingly micromanaging several various, interconnected threads, prior to them becoming catastrophic and ruinous, has the accidental side effect of compartmentalizing the conflict. At once it manages to create an intriguing character in Gere's Robert Miller – a man who has never met a person he cannot manipulate – but it also, perhaps unintentionally, renders the film something of a paint-by-numbers thriller, in which the characters, as completely fleshed-out as they all seem to be, offer little in the way of surprise or genuine intrigue.

'Arbitrage' is a compelling little thriller that might be too neat and tidy for its own good, but it is chock full of excellent performances and certainly provides a glimpse at what an interesting writer-director Jarecki will become as his filmography increases.

The Blu-ray: Vital Disc Stats

'Arbitrage' comes as a single Blu-ray disc from Lionsgate films, in a flimsy eco-keep case. Like most Lionsgate releases, there are quite a few previews for other releases prior to reaching the top menu, which can be skipped individually, but, frustratingly, you cannot jump right to the top menu.