Review of Arbitrage (2012) by Ed C — 26 Dec 2013

One line summary: Everything has a price, sometimes rather high for the top one percent.

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At his 60th birthday, Robert seems to have it all: loving wife, two successful adult children who are close to him, a net worth in the billions, a beautiful artist who is his lover, and a company he is about to sell for a great deal of financial advantage.

However, there are a number of hanging weaknesses. An audit will not go through which would pave the way for the sale. The sale, his mistress, his wife, his company, his daughter, and his friend who lent him millions of dollars are all tugging him in different directions. The CEO of the company who wants to buy his company will not meet with him directly.

Just to make things enormously worse, Robert goes for a drive with Julie, falls asleep at the wheel, and crashes her car. Julie dies. He barely struggles out of the car. As he hobbles away from it, the car bursts into fire. Robert makes his way to a truck stop and calls a person whom he thinks he can trust. He goes to the art gallery that Julie ran, and destroys evidence. He makes his way home, treats his wounds as best he can, and get in bed with Ellen, his wife.

Robert has to figure out how to find the reason the audit is delayed, what he can do to quash the NYPD's investigation of Julie's murder, and keep Brooke, his business brilliant daughter, from figuring out some financial irregularities. He has to find a way to meet and negotiate directly with the man who wants to buy his company.

Just when Robert thinks he has it all figured out, and all his ducks are in a row again, Ellen lets him know this is not the case.

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Cinematography: 10/10 No problems; well shot.

Sound: 10/10 Fine.

Acting: 10/10 Fine performances by Richard Gere, Susan Sarandan, Tim Roth, Stuart Margolin, and Nate Parker.

Screenplay: 10/10 Followed several story threads to a successful resolution.