Review of Arbitrage (2012) by Jon-James H — 25 Oct 2012

Does anyone still find the backroom tradings and lies interesting? This movie was overdue by thirty years and even if I had watched circa 1982 I'd still have been bored to tears. This movie is like dirty water circling the plughole that is its final five minutes; going in no specific direction, unable to grip on to anything it touches and ultimately sinking down into the darkness, never to be seen again.

It begins harmlessly enough introducing plastic stereotypes that permeate both film and society in general. Then it spends twenty minutes introducing characters and lives in a way that offers no emotional investment whatsoever for those watching. Even additional characters, who make a welcome break from the tedium, fade into the background, never to make any lasting impression.

Boring, predictable story aside, the movie also seems to suffer from pink eye. Not the common form documented in textbooks, but a new condition that can be attributed to the amateur colour corrector. Check any red light in the film if you can't tell what I'm talking about, and try and recall how many drinks you'd need to be blinded by a red light in the way that occurs throughout the film.

If this movie could be smelt, it would reek of rank amateurism.