Review of Arbitrage (2012) by Joel M — 11 Nov 2012

The term "arbitrage" is primarily business related. It means "the nearly simultaneous purchase and sale of securities or foreign exchange in different markets in order to profit from price discrepancies". That is too business linguistic for me. In my pun vocabulary, it means "pigging out at the now defunct restaurant Arby's when I was a kid". In reality, what it really means to me is a very well-constructed movie about a business mogul who gets over his head in his greed for money, so he goes on a fraud rampage by fabricating numbers to steal from his clients; and consequently must deal with his wrongdoings. No, the name of this movie is not called "Bernie". Richard Gere is all business here with the best performance of his career as Robert Miller, the aforementioned business tycoon who also must deal with other crashes (besides the market) when he is involved in a severe car crash with his mistress as a passenger. Miller's wife Ellen is played by the always mesmeric Susan Sarandon, who just might see a Poor Man Begging by her side in the future. I will not deposit too many plot points here, but I must say that newbie Writer- Director Nicholas Jarecki's compelling script and orchestration of the film was quite a deal for me. Jarecki does provide a lot of business- lingo in the script that might be above most of the non-business savvy moviegoers' heads (present company included), but he incorporates it in a way that is fluid and understandable to the narrative in place. Beauty Brit Marling was sterling as Miller's daughter Brooke, who is also a bigwig at his company. I don't like people to "lie to me" and I will not lie in saying that Tim Roth continues to be one of the most under-appreciated actors in the last 20 years. Roth once again rocked with his acting portraying here the feisty detective who is primarily geared to give Miller some prison time. Film Composer Cliff Martinez once again drives another intense musical score; Martinez's "Drive" score is one of the best in the last ten years. But it is Gere's exemplary work that deserves the most profit in this picture, and Richard should be geared for his first Oscar nomination; he is very deserving of it, and it's about the time that the Academy recognizes that he is not (to quote David Lee Roth) "just a gigolo". So I think the movie-going market should bank on "Arbitrage", and I promise that you will not be cheated.

**** Good.