Arbitrage (2012)

I have already written about a couple of movies lately that were centered around despicable anti-heroes. These movies are always treated one of two ways. They are embraced as daring masterpieces that had the guts to show us the dark side of human nature, or they are declared morally bankrupt and inaccessible. I have gone both ways. For me, it all depends on how well I come to like the villainous protagonist. In Arbitrage, I certainly do like the conniving main character, who breaks laws, puts his business above his family and carries on in all sorts of uncaring ways. Played by Richard Gere, Robert Miller is a billionaire who is having an affair with one of his young investments. One night, he accidentally kills her when he wrecks his car. Seeing as how he is already going to great lengths to cover up some of the fraud he's been doing at work, he now also has to keep his involvement with the accident unknown, to avoid the unveiling of his mistress. What he doesn't know is that everybody else already found out, including the police.

This is the first picture from Nicholas Jarecki, who writes and directs, and who has previously made a name for himself with various TV documentaries and his book, Breaking In: How 20 Film Directors Got Their Start. Watching his movie unravel is one of the most interesting experiences at the movies this year, and what a great start to a narrative career! You'd think this was his twentieth picture, rather than his first. What makes the whole thing work is how real these characters are. Miller is not a one-note evil thing. He has moments in which he tries to care, or at least puts on a good show pretending, but he is also aware that he has grown incapable of caring about certain things. Gere is a marvel in this performance. He plays the character almost entirely blandly, as if he knows how everything will turn out, but this complacency is accompanied by a few emotional outbursts that make him human. Perhaps the best scene in the movie is when he visits his mistress' funeral and practically apologizes to her mother. Note that he has no intention of doing the same favor to his wife, a small role played memorably by Susan Sarandon, or his daughter, a bright-eyed up-and-comer who is shattered to discover her father is less than perfect.

If you find yourself rooting for Jarecki's characters to succeed, don't be too hard on yourself. Arbitrage is such a well-made, well-played, thought-provoking little thriller that it would be nearly impossible not to want justice to be defeated. The fact of the matter is that this is truthfully not a work of true fiction. Without question, money is power, and Miller is a character that represents most wealthy individuals in the country today. Despite all the manslaughter and embezzlement he takes part in, I suspect he has no doubts as to whether or not he will come through. Not with all those millions in the bank.

9/10