Review of Arbitrage (2012) by Jonathan B — 01 Feb 2013

Richard Gere has always been something of an underrated, oft-overlooked actor, especially by the Academy, and Arbitrage just might be his finest hour. By all accounts, his character is a despicable man, which we learn right off the bat. He's living multiple lives by engaging in both a high stakes defrauding business scheme and an extramarital affair, and that's all before the inciting incident midway through, which really makes him out to be bad, but Gere somehow endows him with just enough sympathy that keeps him from turning into a one-note villain. Heck, you even kind of end up rooting for the guy, and it's hard not to marvel at how he's always two-steps ahead of everybody else. But being that Arbitrage is something of a morality play, you know there's some sort of comeuppance on the horizon.

To his credit, first time writer-director Nicholas Jarecki does a marvelous job of slowly drawing you in and then circumventing expectations. It's more in the vein of a traditional thriller than recently-themed Wall Street films, less talking heads and boardrooms, if you will, yet it's seamlessly a natural fit for a character study that just happens to include a police investigation and financial commentary undercurrents. It's too bad Arbitrage was bypassed during awards season because it's deserving of many accolades. Gere, certainly, but Susan Sarandon is also quite fantastic in her few scenes as well, and like I said it's a knockout debut for Jarecki. Arbitrage is among the best films to come out of 2012. Hopefully it will enjoy a longer shelf life than its humble reception thus far would suggest.