MONEY MONSTER: MONEY MATTERS

When I heard the premise of the movie MONEY MONSTER I wondered why on Earth they would decide to open it during the summer season. Summers usually mean blockbuster tent pole films, over the top action flicks and gross out humor. This movie seemed to be far from that. The end result was the film doing decent business but being called a flop because it didn’t to what is expected of summer films. That’s sad because the truth is it is a pretty good film. 

George Clooney stars as Lee Gates, a Jim Cramer styled television financial advisor who perks things up with sound clips, special effects and special sequences to make investing in money more fun. He’s also a bit of a cynic and loose cannon, more often than  not bypassing the scripted material set up by director Patty Fenn (Julia Roberts) and working off the cuff. The two work well together but the combination of ego and style have taken their toll on Patty.

As their show goes on the air a delivery man appears on the set in the background. As he comes forward he makes clear what he wants by pulling out a gun and taking Lee hostage on air. He forces them to keep the show on air and soon everyone is watching. The gunman, Kyle Budwell (Jack O’Connell), has Lee open a box and inside is a bomb vest which he has Lee put on. With only a dead man switch in his hand Kyle begins to tell Lee what the problem is.

It seems a week or so beforehand Kyle took Lee’s advice and invested his life savings, $60,000, into IBIS, a company that lost $800 million in a single day due to what they term a “computer glitch”. But Kyle is having none of it. He doesn’t believe there was any glitch at all. He holds Lee responsible at first, thinking he was in on some sort of fix but as Lee slowly begins to unravel the truth behind everything they become cohorts rather than captor and captive.

Several other things are happening at the same time. The New York police are trying to determine how to resolve the situation. Having gotten most of the crew out of the studio and people in the building out as well, they come up with a plan that involves shooting Lee to short out the frequency of the bomb vest. Patty is pressing her staff to find out exactly what happened with the so called “glitch”. And IBIS communications officer Diane Lester (Caitriona Balfe) is trying to track down elusive CEO Walt Camby (Dominic West), who is in the air somewhere, in order to find out herself what is happening.

Director Jodie Foster mingles these stories quite well here developing as much tension from each aspect as from Kyle and his bomb vest. Rather than let that be the focus of the movie it is the melding of each story in a twisting tale that reaches no solution until the final reel. Compounded with that issue is the fear that one or more of the characters that we come to root for in the film may die at any moment. Just who is in on the problem at hand and who is in control?

What also makes this work is that it isn’t an attack on the entirety of Wall Street. It isn’t an indictment of each and every trader or stock broker in existence. Had they done so it would have felt less like a serious concern over characters and their situations and more of a protest film with no focused bad guys. Instead the focus on IBIS works and helps make the film play out better. It targets one group, one company, one deceptive group and gives us someone to steer our anger towards.

Clooney does a great job here and seems like he’s having far too much fun. Many will probably not recall that in his early days Clooney starred in a number of comedic roles as opposed to the leading man characters he is well known for. Seriously, the man was a co-star of THE RETURN OF THE KILLER TOMOATOES. He shows that he works well in this sort of role and it feels tailor made for him. Roberts does a great job as well but her part seems incredibly minor for an actress of her stature, almost a supporting rather than a starring role. O’Connor shows that he is someone to keep an eye on making Kyle go from nut job to someone we care about before the film ends.

As serious as it sounds there is plenty of dark humor on display in this film. It is less a tension fueled thriller and more a thought provoking piece of entertainment that has you laugh, worry and think all before the end credits role. While I wasn’t sure if the movie would be that good as it opened I loved it by the end. It’s one I could watch again and still enjoy and one that I would heartily recommend be seen.

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