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Canberra Today 11°/15° | Saturday, March 30, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

‘Arbitrage’ (MA) *** and a half

THIS enigmatic title is apparently the financial industry’s term for “a duplicitous means of making a profit by playing both sides”.

Hedge-fund magnate Robert (Richard Gere) has more wealth than he needs for a luxurious lifestyle, a delectable wife (Susan Sarandon) and a daughter Brooke (Brit Marling) who runs the firm’s investment arm with total probity and admirable efficiency.

Robert is hiding problems. He has set up his discreet and enthusiastic hotsy-totsy with a fashionable art gallery and an apartment. He has borrowed against the prospect of a nine-digit funds injection from somebody who’s being coy about signing on the dotted. On the night of his 60th birthday, having drunk too much, he is driving when his mistress dies in a spectacular accident and then he involves a young black employee in concealing the aftermath.

Robert may occupy a position traditionally reserved for the hero. But once we see the dimensions of his concealed selfish dishonesty, we kinda hope he will get a fitting comeuppance. That yearning drives 25-year-old writer/director Nicholas Jarecki’s debut feature with great energy, agreeable complexity and generable unpredictability. He introduces an equally-unprincipled NYPD detective (Tim Roth) who’s on the accident case because frankly, it’s on the nose.

We’d like to see 24-carat creep Robert banged up and the key thrown into the ocean. But you don’t become that rich without big smarts and toughness. Filmgoer, take comfort. One person in Robert’s milieu is stronger, smarter and better motivated than he. Which makes an involving film even better.

 At Dendy and Greater Union

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Dougal Macdonald

Dougal Macdonald

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