Robert Miller (Richard Gere) has it all: a multi-billion dollar company, a beautiful wife (Susan Sarandon), kids and grandkids that adore him.
He also has 2 big secrets: He’s been having an affair with the young artist Julie (Laetitia Casta), and he needs to sell his company in the next couple of days before it can be found out that he has cheated on the books (for about 400 million dollars!)
Things turn for the worst when the already stressed Paul has an accident while driving with Julie and she dies. If people find out, he’ll be screwed.
Panicked, he calls the son of an old friend, Jimmy (Nate Parker) and asks for a ride.
He does a lot of things right and covers most of his tracks. Unfortunately, the case is being handled by the relentless detective (Tim Roth) who despises the way how the rich can get away with everything with the help of good lawyers.
Robert finds himself in a corner. If he can’t make the sale, the cheating probably be found out and/or he’ll lose a lot of money. People working for him will lose their jobs and trust, including his own daughter/finance manager (Brit Marling). But he also needs to consider Jimmy, who he put his neck on the line for him, and the cops are pushing hard. He doesn’t deserve to go to jail because of Robert…
It’s a race against time, and Robert doesn’t know what he’ll able to save…
*
Arbitrage finds almost an optimum balance between dramatic and thrilling elements. I love the fact that our protagonist, who also happens to be the perpetrator, is wonderfully grey. It’s so easy going back and forth between liking him and hating him, admiring him and finding him obnoxious, wanting him to get away with it and wanting him to get caught. Gere does a good job.
You need to keep in mind, though, that this is a drama-thriller. Dialogues and characters are just as important as the action-and the action is more about building up to “what now?” moments as Robert finds himself yet at another dead-end. There are no car chases or explosions (just one that was crucial to the story). I like how conflicted Robert is, and how he doesn’t go on a killing spree to solve his problems. It’s good to watch a film where there’s a limit to the desperate measures taken by desperate people.
I love that the cop on the case is smart, persistent and at times equally grey as Paul. My favorite relationship is the one between Robert and Jimmy, not quite knowing if/when one of them will give up on the other.
Yes, I have complaints. Nothing t hat prevented me from enjoying the movie-but it would have made some scenes a lot more plausible, had they been written differently:
(following will have spoilers, so you’ve been warned.)
-In the beginning, despite the mistress, Robert doesn’t seem to despise his wife. And his wife definitely doesn’t seem to despise him. She suggests taking a year off and going away together. There’s no way I’d want to do that with a man I was only pretending to love.
-After the accident, Robert lies on the bed next to his wife and asks if he loves her. She says “of course I do.” And yet at the scene before the last, you’d think they were just keeping up appearances. Why would he ask that?
Apart from these 2, and the fact that Susan Sarandon’s screen time being lower than I had hoped, I had a good time. And the beauty of the movie comes from the fact that it is all possible. A rich, older man with a mistress in a financial crisis who has an accident…? Not exactly unlikely.
It’s worth a watch. Currently rated on 6.7 on IMDB. I’d say it deserves a 7, at least. Written and directed by Nicholas Jarecki. Note that Gere has been nominated for Golden Globe (Best Performance by an Actor in Drama, 2013) for his performance.
Other Richard Gere Movies:
The Hunting Party starring Richard Gere, Terrence Howard and Jesse Eisenberg
Brooklyn’s Finest starring Richard Gere, Ethan Hawke and Don Cheadle
Other Susan Sarandon Movies:
Bernard and Doris: Ralph Fiennes and Susan Sarandon
WHITE PALACE: SEXY ROMANCE with Susan Sarandon and James Spader
the best performance
from Richard Gere so far was INTERNAL AFFAIRS
he played a very sneaky evil character
I have to see it again 🙂 I’m pretty happy with his recent script selections: Brooklyn’s Finest, Arbitrage, The Double, The Hunting Party…Have you seen The Double? His character is even greyer there!!! 🙂