Arbitrage

Last night I streamed Arbitrage, starring Richard Gere. Written and directed by the young Nicholas Jarecki, Arbitrage is a melodrama with a film noir plot about the owner of a hedge fund, played by Richard Gere, trying to sell his company before it is discovered that he has cooked its books and killed his mistress. The film cashes in on the public's post-meltdown loathing of the 1%. But by the movie's end, the clever young Jarecki has the 99% rooting for the plutocrat to outwit his foes in the police and banking industry and get away with fraud and negligent homicide. The final scene is a celebration of ambiguity and alienation. The rich inhabit a bright, loveless, frigid marble and gold world of lies.

Despite the interesting ending, the film is not a success. (Several times during the one hour and forty minutes I found my self looking at my watch. To me this is the ultimate sign of success or failure. If I never consult my watch while sitting at my computer table then I am entranced; if I'm frequently checking the time, I am not.)

Even though Tim Roth and Susan Sarandon appear in Arbitrage their roles are minor. No, this is a Richard Gere show. And over the decades with Richard Gere you know what you're going to get. The same mannerisms, the same emotional range. It's Richard Gere. (Though I must say I thought his portrayal of a cowardly, torpent beat cop nearing retirement in Antoine Fuqua's Brooklyn's Finest was interesting, if only because it deviated, slightly, from the usual Richard Gere cookie cutter performance.)

Last Sunday night I streamed Andrew Dominik's Killing Them Softly. The Australian Dominik wrote and directed one of my favorite films of the last ten years, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Killing Them Softly is not as visually compelling but the writing is. I've never read George V. Higgins' Cogan's Trade which is the novel the screenplay of Killing Them Softly adapts. So I can't say how much of the dialogue is lifted from Higgins. But having read The Friends of Eddie Coyle I'd guess very little.

There are three scenes where the writing is amazing. The first is a dialogue between the two petty criminals who rob the card game (which is the focus of the movie). They're discussing women and how they are when they have sex. I've never seen anything like it in a Hollywood movie. It's ugly, misogynistic and true. The next is a dialogue in a hotel room between the two hitmen, played by Brad Pitt and James Gandolfini. Gandolfini discusses his passion for cooze. Once again, it's boundary crossing; I haven't really seen anything like it in a Hollywood film. It's a harsh but accurate look at how hard men talk to each other about women. Then there is the final scene in a dive bar where Brad Pitt's up until now laconic character sprouts oratorical wings and takes off on a discourse about Obama, Jefferson and America, which concludes: "This guy wants to tell me we're living in a community? Don't make me laugh. I'm living in America, and in America, you're on your own. America is not a country; it's a business. Now fucking pay me."

Killing Me Softly is a movie that should be seen. It is a study of the nuts and bolts of organized criminality set against the backdrop of the 2008 financial meltdown and presidential election. The message is obvious. The system, capitalism, is criminal; whether a president or a junky trigger man, it's all robbery.