Arbitrage

Review by Anthony Morris

Sixty year-old Robert Miller (Richard Gere) has it all. He’s the head of a multi-million dollar financial company, he has a loving wife (Susan Sarandon) and family – his daughter Brooke (Brit Marling) is his company's chief financial officer – he's in the final stages of selling off his company so he can take a step back from his hectic life and he's got a French painter (Laetitia Casta) stashed across town to be his mistress.

But as often the case with a house of cards, it doesn't take much for the whole thing to come tumbling down: it seems the company sale is more about trying to get out before the shaky finances become obvious, having a mistress is more of a drag than a fun time, and when Miller has an accident that could bring the whole house of cards down around him, he draws the attention of a New York detective (Tim Roth) who's just waiting for a chance to finally stick it to one of those rich guys who think they’re above it all.

While at time this threatens to pull something new or interesting out of its hat, this is basically another film where a rich white guy has to get his act together to worm his way out of a bad situation.

It's well done in a solid way, but Miller – who really should be an outright bad guy here – never quite gets around to fully showing the depths of his black heart.

Part of that is due to Gere, who does a great job of playing the character as written but remains too charming to suggest the nastiness the character needs to be really interesting.

And part of that is due to the underwritten roles given everyone else, leaving them as cardboard people who either do as Miller says or try to stand in his way.

It's a film trying to show us how people like Miller get away with what they do, but it feels like it's been seduced by him like (almost) everyone else. It's still perfectly entertaining – it's just never anything more than that.

3 out of 5

Arbitrage
Australian release: 27th September, 2012
Cast: Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon, Tim Roth, Brit Marling, Laetitia Casta, Nate Parker
Director: Nicholas Jarecki