'MONEY MONSTER' which I saw on Friday is Jodie Foster's fourth Directorial outing after 'Little Man Tate', 'Home for the Holidays', and 'The Beaver' and in this Wall Street set thriller she teams up with George Clooney who Co-Produces and acts with Julia Roberts in the lead roles. Made for US$27M the film has so far recouped US$67M since its mid-May Premier at Cannes and its release Stateside that same day, but has received mixed reviews from critics, despite this probably rating as Foster's best Directorial outing so far.
Our story opens with the news channels broadcasting to us that yesterday 'IBIS Clear Capital' stocks nosedived losing angry investors over $800M because of a 'glitch' in the computer trading algorithm used by that company. As Wall Street financial wunderkind and fast talking stock trading guru Lee Gates (George Clooney) is about to go to air on his own cable network show 'Money Monster', he remains calm, calculating and lighthearted despite recommending this blue chip stock to his viewers just one month ago - and on Wall Street it seems Gates has some clout and has served his investor viewers well in the past. But not today! The count down begins to Gates going live on air, with his long time Director Patty Fenn (Julia Roberts), in his ear and in front of the studio monitors every step of the way. They laugh and joke - it's a Friday - and the week is drawing to a close - what are their dinner plans for that night they quip from opposite ends of the Friday night dinner spectrum.
When the cameras role, its time for action and 'Money Monster' goes live to air with Gates opening up with a song & dance routine to introduce the show, and then quickly gets to grips with the IBIS Clear Capital meltdown of yesterday. He shakes it off in a cavalier kinda way saying that as investors you gotta roll with the punches, ride the ups and downs and take the rough with the smooth. He is hoping to get the IBIS CEO Walt Camby (Dominic West) on the show for some live Q&A, but has to settle for Chief Communications Officer Diane Lester (Caitriona Balfe) who is via a live feed on a monitor in the studio, because Camby is in flight somewhere heading to Geneva in one of his many private jets.
About five minutes into the show, a delivery man wanders onto the set carrying two boxes having negotiated his way easily enough past a napping team of security guards. Going along with what is thought to be a ruse, Gates soon realises that this delivery guy is no ordinary delivery guy as he pulls out a loaded weapon and starts firing randomly to draw attention to himself and capture the interest of the viewing public. The man in question is a Kyle Budwell (Jack O'Connell) who we learn quickly wants answers from Gates as to how and why IBIS tanked yesterday costing investors $800M and him personally his inherited life savings of $60K in a stock that he recommended as a sure bet only weeks before. Having made his intentions known on live television, Budwell orders Gates to open a box, pull out and put on what is contained therein - a vest containing semtex explosives with a hair trigger that Budwell keeps firmly held in his hand, but will detonate as soon as his thumb is released from the trigger.
Once Gates has got over his initial panic, and Budwell has taken charge of the on-camera events, so Fenn swings into action taking charge of the off-camera events albeit in direct communication with Gates via his ear piece and the New York Police Department who quickly assemble a team on the ground. She orders everyone to vacate the studio except for essential cameramen, sound technicians and a couple of assistants in her control room. The on-camera dialogue continues as Gates tries to calm the situation and gain some control with Fenn's help. Gradually, Gates starts to feel some sympathy for Budwell, realising that he is from a working class background, struggling to make ends meet and he has indirectly compounded the situation. To placate Budwell, Gates says that he will get him the answers, and so he organises a live link up with IBIS CCO Lester in Camby's absence to provide some clarity. That doesn't go well as she says that she too lost money and it was just a 'glitch', and hey, shit happens!
Unaccepting that it is just a glitch, behind the scenes Fenn starts to do some digging as does Lester by tracking down who created the algorithm in the first place eventually tracing the programmer to Seoul, where she gets him on the phone. He states clearly that there is no way he algorithm could take such a substantial and slanted position - it is mathematical code not designed to do so, and such an event could only occur with human intervention - guaranteed! As more becomes known about Budwell, we learn that his mother died six months earlier leaving him the $60K that he invested in IBIS based on Gates more than positive endorsement. We also learn that he has a girlfriend heavily pregnant with their first child, and that he earns $14 an hour labouring - barely enough to scrape together a living for the two of them let alone a third on the way. The Police bring her to the studio where she goes on air to talk him around and diffuse the matter, but instead she publicly berates and humiliates him with all the voracity of a woman scorned and on live TV for all the world to hear and see.
The Police SWAT Team have arrived meanwhile and have gained access to the studio with the aim of taking out Gates by shooting the bombs receiver which is located directly over his kidney - shoot the receiver and the bomb is diffused, but that means shooting Gates and there is an 80% chance he'll survive, and hey, he's got two kidneys anyway! Gates and Fenn don't know this, but soon do when an evacuated Assistant to Fenn down on the street overhears a conversation involving the Police and the SWAT guys that this is about to unfold. By now, Gates is sympathetic to Budwells position and has taken pity on the struggling man with a cause. He hatches a plan to vacate the studio and get to Federal Hall and confront Camby who has since flown in from Johannesburg it is revealed, and not Geneva where everyone thought he had been. Using Budwell as cover to prevent the SWAT Team from shooting out the vest's receiver, the two vacate the building with a cameraman, the Police following behind and onlookers lining the streets.
In the meantime, Fenn is on the ground following and giving instructions from an outside broadcast van. She contacts a group of hackers based in Iceland to dig into Camby's whereabouts in Johannesburg and uncover the truth behind his dealings there. Locating Camby at Federal Hall before he could bolt having been cornered by Lester who divulged that she knew he had lied about his whereabouts, Gates and Budwell position him so that he can not run away. Confronting Camby with what they know, having received video evidence from the ever so helpful Icelandic hackers, it turns out that the IBIS CEO syphoned off $800M to invest in a South African mining company whose stock value would be devalued by a made up union strike that would run longer than expected as a result of bribing the miners union. Buying the undervalued shares, he would then profit in the billions when normal work resumed and the share price rose to its former position and then some. But the plan backfired, when the miners remained on strike and IBIS buckled under the weight of its own trading position - nothing therefore to do with a glitch in the algorithm. Confronted with the video evidence which has now been beamed around the world, Camby admits the wrong doing which is all that Budwell wanted, and so he gives himself up willingly, whilst Camby has to face trial for various violation counts under the Foreign Investment Acts.
I did enjoy 'Money Monster' - it moves along a good pace, it is a solid enough story reasonably well told, the characters you can relate to, the lead players of Clooney and Roberts share an on-screen chemistry that we have seen before and which is evident here too, and Director Foster has further honed her film making skills to deliver a thrilling, dramatic and at times satirical look at Wall Street, those who work it, those who invest in it and how we consume it. However, for me the final chapter when everything comes together just so is a little too convenient, too contrived and too quick. The whole thing unfolds over a few hours one Friday during day time TV and serves to bring the whole sorry story for Budwell and Gates to a close in the way that we know is going to be inevitable. Certainly worth a look, entertaining if a little predictable.
-Steve, at Odeon Online-
