Nicholas Jarecki’s most recent film, Arbitrage, has a despicable main character. Robert Miller (Richard Gere) is a billionaire hedge-fund manager attempting to cover up a multi-million dollar fraud while also hiding an accidental manslaughter. In spite of this, the average viewer can still relate to Miller’s desire to protect his family and provide jobs to the people who need them.
The overlap of unlikely occurrences within Robert’s life seems impossible: coping with the accidental manslaughter of his french artist lover, covering up the on-purpose $412 million hole in his company’s math, and managing the distribution of money to those who rely on him. It makes one wonder how much a human mind and body can really take. Under the impression that money can buy everything; he tries to bribe off the one person who was there to help him. We are left watching Robert’s aging shoulders carry an incredulous amount of lies and secrets as he attempts to fix them all.
The script, written by director Nicholas Jarecki manages all of this in an eloquently raw manner, taking the viewer through the time and emotions while simultaneously developing the characters at a reasonable pace. However, the focus of the film is confusing. It is unclear whether lessons are to be learned from Robert’s reliance on money or we should be focusing on the business aspect of the story. Furthermore, Robert’s lover complicates the plot and leaves the story muddled. It wasn’t clear whether I was watching Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps or Michael Clayton. It was trying to be both and so much more simultaneously.
All in all, despite the phenomenal performances there was simply too much going on for it to be memorable: too many characters, too many emotions, too many stories.