Arbitrage

Rating : 7/10
Release Date : 14th September, 2012 (India)
Time : 100 minutes
Director, Writer : Nicholas Jarecki; Music : Cliff Martinez
Starring : Richard Gere, Laetitia Casta, Brit Marling, Susan Sarandon, Nate Parker, Tim Roth

Its lonely at the top. Especially, if you only deal in the currency of money (‘What else is there?’) and you have a wife (Susan Sarandon) who needs money for charities (‘But its only 2 mill?’) and head a firm that is broke, shored up by a loan that needs to be repaid and is looking to sell-out while maintaining the all important façade of success, prosperity through it all, even while his own daughter (Brit Marling) is trying to get to the bottom of the fudged accounts.

Add to this an affair with a sexy artist (Laetitia Casta) that goes wrong, thanks to a sleepy mistake, a cop (Tim Roth), who is determined to nail him and the son, (Nate Parker), of an ex-employee, who is in the hot seat thanks to you, life doesn’t seem to be particularly easy for Richard Gere.

And it doesn’t get any easier as he fights everyone who tries to get in his way, his own daughter, the people from the bank trying to buy him, the audit firm going through his books, or his own wife, who suddenly isn’t sure what she really wants from her husband.

The pressures shown are real. The situation shown, realistic. As he points out during a conversation when he is trying to explain how he got in this financial mess, things sometimes just go wrong. One bad decision, leads to losses, leads to your getting in deeper, attempting to cover up that hole and soon…BOOM…you’re in way over your head, while everyone around you, just wants you to continue to be the ATM you’ve always been.

Wealth suits Richard Gere in movies, he just looks the part so much. The other impressive actors here were Nate Parker, really convincing, trying not to snitch even when the going gets tough and Tim Roth, the man responsible for the going getting tough.

Enron. WorldCom. Satyam. The world has seen many real life situations where big, reputed companies have gone under. This is a reel-life explanation, at least in part, of how such things come to pass. I found it gripping, engaging and thought provoking. As in real life, you don’t know till the end, how it will pan out…