Arbitrage

Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon, Brit Marling    d/  Nicholas Jarecki

Here we get to live for a time in the upper echelons of the capitalist pecking order and watch as one of the stars teeters on the brink of disaster. Robert Miller is a deeply amoral man...the highly stressful messes we see him struggling with here are solely the result of his total lack of a moral compass. He reflects, indeed epitomizes the value system of the Wall Street/City of London world. Greed is good and the single-minded pursuit of more, always more, is the only value rewarded.

Gere was terrific. He managed to get us to care about his character's fate even though his behavior to everyone in his life, including and especially his "loved" ones is repellent. We even feel a sense of relief when he gets away with his machinations. The whole production was first rate in all aspects...editing, cine, supporting characters...all of it.

It's been said that we in the West are led by sociopaths. This film humanizes and brings that idea to life.

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