Expecting to find yourself watching yet another disastrous movie or a superhero flick this weekend? Variety strikes theaters and it has all got to do with money, which just might pique your fancy.
The Silence Of The Lambs star Jodi Foster finds herself back behind the movie cameras after five silent years, bringing us her new all star-studded thriller Money Monster. Revolving around a TV show running with the same name, it follows Wall Street money and stock fanatic host Lee Gates. It brings to the screen real world problems where trusting bankers have managed to find their hands too deep in our pockets.
George Clooney’s Lee Gates opens with a shebang of narcissism and a money-minded way of thinking which is almost intoxicating. He appears to have a deep understanding of the financial market while possessing a deep rooted, almost closely sexual love towards the idea of financial gain, one which has been joked about on his show. With a gun pointed to his head, it becomes a different ball game entirely. It results with his true self surfacing with a spray of vulnerable feelings. Whilst trying to escape his loneliness, the situation gives way for Clooney to exercise his charming personality which shines through brightly. He is more convincing as an obnoxious talk show host who dances around with fancy hats and a boxing gown to carry his hilariously narcissistic image, thus again, proving that he is a man of many talents.
Gates is on the short end of things when a street boy Kyle Budwell takes centre stage onto his show after waving around his lethal toys. Following his controversial actions, it turns out he is a man searching for answers and the ultimate truth. Evidently, he is one of thousands who lost their life savings when the big dollar-making company IBIS experienced a financial crash. Named by the financial smarties as ‘The Glitch’, 800 mill went down the drain along with every small shareholder and investor on board. It would explain Budwell’s harsh outburst, one which manifested from the burdensome truth that he bought his way into financial ruin.
Ocean’s Eleven, Ocean’s Twelve, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and now this one, Julia Roberts and George Clooney seem to be made for one another on the big screen. Being Gates’ superiorly witty producer in the control room, Roberts’ Patty Fenn is almost as calming and strong-willed as her whispers over the comms as she gets him through the unstable situation he faces along with his adrenaline rushes which he either mistakes for heart attacks or which gets him on Kyle’s grumpy side.
In light of all the unfortunate series of events, the world caring too little and making fictional financial loss look almost irrelevant is more than surprising. All is what it is until the poverty-stricken Budwell asks the million dollar question of what really happened. While initially being introduced as a simpleton who cracked, an overly vulnerable man emerges as he keeps going through his poorly conceived and misguided plan.
The claustrophobic time on the set gives just enough of way for the audience to breathe a little as the story progresses. Under intriguing circumstances, the action is taken downtown and onto Wall Street, which is plagued with SWAT teams and angry rioting crowds. Running close to the climax, the scenario intensifies on a tantalizing level, with the right amount of tabs of entertaining humor. While aiming for a big climax, it disappoints with predictability, giving little room for a spontaneous end twister, ending with a boring bang.
The movie gravitates towards the ‘thriller genre’ while the plot unfolds. A Wall Street movie like this probably drew inspiration from a number of movies with similarly outlined storylines and does not manage to be any better than any of them. Foster engages us with intense storytelling even while possessing a less than mediocre script, one which was written by Jamie Linden, Alan DiFiore, and Jim Kouf. Being a movie about money crunching numbers and shares, it is accompanied by passionate and hot-blooded conversations about it, which are obviously dumbed down right after someone responds with a “what are you trying to say”. Clearly Foster couldn’t trust the audience with big words and agreed to assume that they wouldn’t get along with the intensity of a moment if they were tossed around.
The truth is Gates and Budwell face situations which could either work in their favor or against them, keeping them on the edge of things, and us munching at that popcorn even more. Through almost 90 minutes of sheer tension, real life issues were brought to the table, with desperateness surfacing in their eyes, leaving them occasionally spiraling out of control. This has them running towards the most bizarre of solutions, ones which even include violence after a point. Raising awareness around the importance of life over the finance game is a win over here, even when it exposes the humane side of everyone too suddenly and easily. Furthermore, the movie manages to instill doubt towards the banking system, which has also been addressed in today’s world. While being a work of fiction, it is a highly probable hypothetical scenario, which is quite interesting.
Money Monster is energetic and enjoyable but predictable, and comes off as a movie which is a bit genre-confused. It adds great thrills right about the time you are close to yawning and humors you just before the plot saturates itself with intensity. While it may not be perfect in many ways, Jodi Foster proves she has has an eye for clever storytelling, with room to improve her game. Let’s hope she takes on more favorable scripts to compliment her directing skills for her fifth movie. Although props to her; she has proven she can handle both silly stories and paying an A-list cast to do their jobs beautifully on a large scale movie.
