Review of Arbitrage (2012) by Reece T — 14 Dec 2012

A businessman's thriller. So this is about a wealthy man (Richard Gere) who is in a bit of a legal bind, and that is all exacerbated when he is involved in an accident and flees the scene of the crime.

Even though this is what I consider to be by definition a good movie, I would be lying if I said that I didn't have trouble connecting with it. I've never been the world's biggest Richard Gere fan, and to his credit, he does have scenes where his acting abilities shine.

It started off feeling a lot like the god awful Cosmopolis, which had me very worried, but, unlike that dreck, this actually has a narrative structure, so it did get better for me. I guess my problem with the movie is that once the accident happens, I kind of knew where everything was headed.

That's not the biggest problem in the world, it just didn't make for an all that engaging package because I found it to be somewhat predictable, and it is a thriller that never really thrilled me.

I did like seeing Tim Roth show up; even though he is in a very cliched role, I thought he did well with it. I also really liked the note that the movie ended on, which bumped my opinion up a bit. Arbitrage is a decent enough movie, I just don't know who I would recommend it to.