Reprising
his role as Edward Lewis, a wealthy corporate
raider from New York in the 1990 film Pretty
Woman, Richard Gere is Robert Miller, the
billionaire CEO of a hedge-fund in Nicholas
Jarecki's entertaining suspense drama,
Arbitrage. The word “arbitrage” refers to making
riskless profits by exploiting statistical
anomalies (mispricing) of an asset by playing
both sides. It is not necessary to know what the
word means, however, to keep track of the events
that trigger Miller's downward spiral.
Outwardly, Miller is a charming man who seems to
have it all, money status, respect and a doting
family - but underneath his morals extend only
to what makes him richer, regardless of the
human consequences.
He is the prototype of the arrogant
one-percenter that comes to mind when we think
of the corrupt Wall Street tycoons that sent the
economy into a tailspin in 2008. Miller is not
“people-oriented.” He could easily have repeated
his response from Pretty Woman when Julia
Roberts asks him, “What about the people who
work for those companies?" "People have nothing
to do with it," he explained. "It's strictly
business." Unlike the bachelor Lewis, Miller has
a wife Ellen (Susan Sarandon) and two children
who work for him, his daughter Brooke (Brit
Marling), also his business partner and Chief
Accountant, and his son (Austin Lysy), but they
seem to be important only for the sake of his
convenience.
Miller's relationship with his wife is not
exactly glowing with romance. At the opening of
the film, after his family has given him a
birthday party, he sneaks out of the house to
see his exotic mistress, French art gallery
owner Julie Cote (Laetitia Casta) whose
relationship is apparently unbeknownst to his
wife. Miller has more going on than infidelity
at this point, however. He is deeply engaged in
a merger that will allow him to sell his
investment firm at a profit, but in order to
cover a $400 million dollar shortfall, he has
fabricated the numbers by borrowing from another
investor who is now demanding his money back,
all of these machinations hidden from everyone
in the company, including Brooke.
As if the financial problems weren't enough,
Miller leaves the scene of a fatal accident,
shuddering to think what the publicity would do
to his reputation. Trying to cover his tracks,
he calls Jimmy, the son of his former Chauffeur
who is an ex-con, and asks him to drive him
home. These events do not sit well with
Detective Michael Bryer (Tim Roth) who has
reason to suspect Miller was involved in the
accident but shifts his investigation to Jimmy.
Threatening Jimmy with a ten-year jail term for
obstruction of justice, he tries to coerce him
into a confession, but, with Miller's support,
the rules that apply to the rest of us do not
seem to be relevant for those with power and
influence.
Sparing no one in his indictment of malfeasance,
Jarecki spreads the web of corruption to the
detective as well, leaving the film with Jimmy,
perhaps being the only sympathetic character.
Arbitrage has moments of suspense but little
follow through. It is a character study, a
police procedural, and an expose of high stakes
financial wrongdoing, yet it fails to explore
any of these aspects with any depth or boldness.
While Gere is in top form in of his best roles
in years (even Oscar worthy), Sarandon and
Marling have little to do to display their
considerable talents. Gere is a believable
character and we are too familiar with the moral
decay of Wall Street, yet Arbitrage does nothing
to move the issues past their starting point
and, given the stellar cast, delivers less
dramatic impact than one would have expected.
