Review of Arbitrage (2012) by Steve W — 10 Nov 2013

Arbitrage (2012) Written and directed by Nicholas Jarecki.

Arbitrage is interesting on several levels; first it's a word most of us will need to look-up; second, even when we've looked it up we'll need to run the meaning through our heads several times before we get it; finally, the concept's link to this film's plot is, like the movie itself, multi-layered and far from straight-forward.

Arbitrage as creative project is fascinating too because it's the first movie of writer-director Nicholas Jarecki, still only 35! It did exceedingly well at the box office, offers us a stand out performance from a resurgent Richard Gere and does that thing that the best stories always do, ends with us wanting so much more.

So, as Cat in Red Dwarf would say at the outset of Arbitrage; What is it?

Aribtrage is taking advantage of a perceived price difference between two or markets. In the movie Richard Gere's character, Robert Miller, manages a hedge fund and is about to sell it for a profit. He's been book-cooking behind-the-scenes however, giving the fund a much healthier balance on paper than it has in reality. As the date of the deal approaches the wheels start to fall of Miller's retirement plan. He's been involved in a long-standing affair and late one night he crashes his car whilst distracted and his mistress is killed. Gere's character doesn't report the accident, it'll complicate his deal, but walks away.

And calls in a favour from the son of a driver who used to work for him. Miller returns home injured and climbs into bed with his wife at four am and she suspects something's amiss. Enter Tim Roth, always a show-steeler, as a grizzled cop who quickly works out that Robert Miller was driving the car that ended up burning out with his dead girlfriend's body inside. As the net closes around Gere's character the tension ratchets up as his daughter discovers his book-cooking and confronts her father.

A series of unforeseen twists and turns keeps Gere's character out of jail, the evidence gathered by the police isn't quite what it seems and just when it seems all is going to be well for him, Robert Miller's wife discovers the affair and looks ready to exact revenge as she has information about his return late home after the car crash.

Gere says his character in the movie is based loosely on Bill Clinton and we're certainly left with the impression at the end that despite his serious peccadilloes he's managed to get away with things. An intelligent, demanding thriller with only one minor explosion in it, a cerebral experience and a very accomplished piece of movie-making which caused my jaw to drop when I discovered it was Jarecki's first time as writer-director (hear him talking about the film here). He's certainly a rising star. Richard Gere's performance is excellent, he is charming, suave and b-b-b-bad to the bone.

**** Four stars (not five because the ending doesn't give us just quite enough for satisfaction, but perhaps Jarecki is just leaving us hungry for his next project.).