This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
I'm up for a good tarring of the corporate class as much as any pinko member of the lamestream media, but even I have my limits, and "Money Monster" runs over those limits with the subtlety of a SWAT team.
This frenetic thriller begins with Lee Gates (George Clooney), a cable-TV financial-show host known for his macho theatrics and his too-confident stock tips. (CNBC's blowhard Jim Cramer is the obvious prototype here, but with better hair.)
It's almost showtime when Gates learns from his long-suffering director, Patty Fenn (Julia Roberts), that his scheduled guest has bailed. That guest was Walt Camby (Dominic West), whose high-tech stock-trading firm — one of Gates's most bullish recommendations — just lost $800 million over a "glitch" in the trading algorithm.
Just when Gates thinks he's stuck with Camby's corporate flack, Diane Lester ("Outlander's" Caitriona Balfe), spouting the pre-approved talking points from a remote location, somebody else enters the studio. That's Kyle Budwell (Jack O'Connell), a working-class guy who has a gun, a vest rigged with explosives, a detonator and a need to tell his story. Kyle puts the vest on Lee and will blow up the studio if Fenn cuts the feed — so a hostage crisis is playing live around the world.
Budwell wants Gates to get to the truth about Camby's company and the missing $800 million, which included Budwell's meager nest egg. While Gates tries to keep Budwell calm, and while an NYPD commander (Giancarlo Esposito) works out a strategy to clear the studio, Fenn deploys her team to get to the bottom of Camby's investments. At the same time, Lester argues with her corporate bosses about how to manage the story while Camby is AWOL on his private jet.
Director Jodie Foster handles her first thriller competently, with a brisk, no-nonsense pace as she juggles all the balls of a dense plot. She deploys her best weapons, Clooney's charisma and smarts, early and often — giving the actor one of his meatier roles in a while. (Roberts, Clooney's former "Ocean's Eleven" foil, is left to languish with an underdeveloped character.)
The problems that crop up come from the script, credited to Jamie Linden ("Dear John") and the team of Alan DiFiore and Jim Kouf, which manages to be convoluted and simplistic at the same time. Exposition is inserted in awkward ways, some character motivations turn on a dime and key information seems to fall from the sky at the most convenient times.
The makers of "Money Monster" think they're pulling off a speedier version of "The Big Short," exposing Wall Street's sins in an entertaining format. The results, though, are more like a cable-TV show — flashy but ultimately distracting — than they intended.
Twitter: @moviecricket —
HHhj
'Money Monster'
A Wall Street TV host is held hostage, leading to some dark corporate secrets being revealed, in this distracting thriller.
Where • Theaters everywhere.
When • Opens Friday, May 13.
Rating • R for language throughout, some sexuality and brief violence.
Running time • 98 minutes.