WORTH : Monday 6th September 2021.

With Greater Sydney still in COVID lockdown now until the end of September at least, and as a result all cinema's closed until sometime after this date, I've been reviewing recently some the latest feature films released onto Netflix. One such film that I watched from the comfort of my own sofa at home this week is the American biographical drama film 'WORTH' which is Directed by Sara Colangelo in her third feature film outing following her debut in 2014 with 'Little Accidents' with Boyd Holbrook, Chloe Sevigny and Elizabeth Banks, and then 'The Kindergarten Teacher' in 2018 with Maggie Gyllenhaal and Gael Garcia Bernal. Based on the 2005 book 'What is Life Worth?' by Kenneth Feinberg, the film saw its World Premier screening back in January 2020 at the Sundance Film Festival, and went out on a limited release in the US and simultaneously on Netflix on 3rd September having generated largely favourable Reviews. 

The film opens up with acclaimed lawyer Kenneth Feinberg (Michael Keaton) teaching to his his class of law students at Georgetown 'What is Life Worth'? ultimately saying that its a legal question, not a philosophical one, and that life is worth a number! Next we cut to Feinberg at home with his wife Dianne Shaff (Talia Balsam) overlooking the plans for his soon to be built new absolute ocean front home. The next morning on September 11th 2001 Feinberg is on the train heading into New York City for another day at his company offices, Sony Discman playing a classical music track into his Sony earphones, when he is interrupted by a cacophony of other passengers all gawping out of the window to see a huge plume of smoke rising up out of the city in the distance. Then comes all the news coverage beamed around the world of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre towers and the Pentagon, the cost in human life, and the reaction to the attacks. 

Shortly after the attacks, Feinberg offers to head up the commission to compensate the victims, on a no fee for service basis saying that he has a moral and emotional imperative to do the right thing by those victims. He is subsequently appointed by Attorney General John Ashcroft (Victor Siezak), because no one else was prepared to step up and take on the case, and so becomes the Special Master of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund created by an Act of Congress, to compensate the victims of the attack (or their families) in exchange for their agreement not to sue the airline corporations involved. He developed the regulations governing the administration of the fund and administered all aspects of the programme, which had a deadline of 3rd December 2003 by which time 80% of all claimants had to sign a document stating that they were satisfied with the compensation payment being offered and that they would not take out any future legal action against the airlines. Failure to reach that 80% would tie up this act for potentially years to come and could cripple the airlines.

Feinberg was responsible for making the decisions on how much each family of a victim would receive, and had to estimate how much each victim would have earned in a full lifetime. His first stumbling block comes one night while at home musing over his calculations when he deduces that a CFO earning US$750K a year would be compensated north of US$4.5M but a dishwasher working at Windows on the World earning US$60K a year would be compensated just US$250K or thereabouts. Is the loss of that dishwasher to his/her family anything less than the loss of that CFO? This very issue raises its head in an initial packed out public meeting with those impacted family members when tempers and emotions very quickly begin to run high. This meeting is also attended by Charles Wolf (Stanley Tucci) - a pilot and activist against Feinberg's plan, who lost his wife in the attacks on the WTC, and who had set up a website called 'Fix the Fund' which garnered much following by those disgruntled victims family members. 

And so Feinberg and his trusted business partner Camille Biros (Amy Ryan) together with two specially recruited graduates Priya Khundi (Shunori Ramanathan) and Darryl Barnes (Ato Blankson-Wood) set about individually interviewing each one of the victims family members over the course of the next two years. At first Feinberg prefers to keep his distance from any direct interview involvement preferring his associates to do that ground work. This begins to alienate him from his colleagues - especially Priya Khundi, and Charles Wolf too. However, Feinberg does take an interest in one particular family of a fireman who lost his life and their three young boys aged 8, 6 and 4. His widow Karen Donato (Laura Benanti) refuses to take a single cent in compensation preferring to let the memory of a loving husband and father look over them. A fact that Frank Donato (Chris Tardio), Karen's brother-in-law, respects and wants to uphold. Feinberg attempts on several occasions to convince her otherwise, saying that it's a tax free payment for the kids education, upbringing and well being. Another case involves Biros talking to a man whose male partner was burned to death in an elevator and he was the last person that victim spoke to, instead of calling his estranged parents in Virginia who were in denial over their sons gay relationship. The turning point for Feinberg comes when he is face to face with a fireman who has no hair, no eyebrows, and the side of his face and ear are badly scarred by burns when another burning fireman fell on top of him. This convinces the attorney to turn tack and adopt a more humanistic stance on an individual case by case basis. 

Time is marching on, a year has past and they have less than 20% of the committed papers signed. As the deadline moves ever closer throughout 2003 we see the whiteboard tally slowly nudge upwards to 35%, then 51% to the point when they are three weeks out and they have 65% committed. Then sometime in or around September 2003 Feinberg attends a 9/11 memorial concert at The Lincoln Centre. Feeling agitated he leaves before the end and in the foyer meets Charles Wolf unexpectedly. Wolf gives Feinberg a pep talk telling him he's 'not the bridge' and recounting a long story about his futile attempts to save a historic bridge while serving on the city council in Ithaca. This conversation serves to reinforce in Feinberg's mind the need to make more of an emotional connection with the families left behind. 

As the team sit around the office each morning waiting for the mail delivery with more committed papers to arrive, the team look increasingly depressed as only sixty or seventy are delivered. Three days out and Feinberg is at a lunch meeting with Lee Quinn (Tate Donovan), another attorney who is attempting to get money for wealthier clients who lost high-income victims in the 9/11 attacks, and is leading the group suing airline companies. He is seeking to pressurise Feinberg to increase the amount of money he is granting to his clients, and with the deadline fast approaching and the magical 80% looking remote, wants Feinberg to sign a deed of release granting Quinn the go ahead to take out a class action. But as Quinn hands Feinberg a fountain pen to sign his papers, Feinberg squeezes the ink out of the cartridge onto the document, gets up and leaves. 

Walking into his office later on that evening, Feinberg is greeted by a plethora of individuals and family members all wanting to talk about the fund payment or handover their duly signed commitment documents. Charles Wolf is there too, and says that he changed the wording on his website from 'Fix the Fund' to 'The Fund is Fixed' and this had the desired effect, having seen too that Feinbergs's interests in every single case was genuine and that he can be trusted to deliver on the undertakings. The next morning the mail men deliver crate loads of signed documents taking the tally to 95%. Karen Donato comes into the office later that evening and personally hands Feinberg her signed commitment papers. At the end of the process a total 97% of the families shared in a US$7B payout from the fund out of a maximum US$7.375B fund including administrative and operational costs as legislated. In the closing scene Feinberg is seen down at the waters edge along the ocean front on an overcast day with his newly built house in the background. 

This film couldn't be more appropriate for the time we're living in given that this week marks the 20th anniversary of the September 11th attacks, and just days out from the end of the 'War on Terror' as America finally pulled out of Afghanistan. That said 'Worth' is a timely reminder of those ghosts that now harbour in the annals of world altering history, and a fitting testimonial to the courage, conviction and determination of a handful of people to ensure that the lives of those victims and their families left behind could carry on beyond the enduring pain and suffering. This is Michael Keaton's film who carries the weight of Kenneth Feinberg squarely on his shoulders and puts in a nuanced, conflicted and redemptive performance as the accomplished New York lawyer prepared to go out on a limb and ultimately do the right thing. Stanley Tucci and Amy Ryan are equally stoic in their reliable supporting roles, and Director Colangelo delivers a nuanced and emotionally resonant film that adds another dimension to the growing list of 9/11 feature films and documentaries out there that is a reflective and rewarding memorial to those almost three thousand victims and their families. My only criticism is that the film gets a little repetitive in places, but this in only a minor gripe.

'Worth' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a potential five claps. 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-