MOVIE REVIEW: MONEY MONSTER (R)
Famed actress Jodie Foster returns to the director’s chair for the first time since 2011’s “The Beaver,” starring Mel Gibson. With “Money Monster,” Foster has fashioned a potboiler with topical themes, but does the movie work as a whole?
In “Money Monster,” popular financial advisor and TV personality Lee Gates (George Clooney) finds himself and his TV studio crew held hostage by Kyle Budwell (Jack O’Connell), a desperate investor with an ax to grind. It seems that Budwell holds Gates and a handful of other so-called experts accountable for giving him less-than-sound financial advice.
With an explosive strapped to his chest, Gates must find a way to either talk Budwell down or get the man the info he seeks before time runs out. Thankfully, this charismatic but somewhat despised TV show host has his trusty producer Patty Fenn (Julia Roberts) on his side, but will that be enough to keep a volatile situation in check?
Clooney is solid here, bringing swagger to his fast-talking Lee Gates, a somewhat thinly drawn character who probably has more detractors than supporters. O’Connell is a major star on the rise, and you needn’t look any further than his riveting, quietly intense turn in last year’s little-seen gem, “’71,” to recognize that. His Kyle Budwell is a sympathetic sort: a likable, down-on-his-luck individual who, after foolishly taking some bad advice, seeks a little payback for himself and the American people. O’Connell brings much-needed energy to the proceedings, and of the three leads, he’s the most compelling. Sadly, Roberts is saddled with a fairly thankless role. Her screen time is ample, but she isn’t given much to work with, and you’d think a woman in her situation would break more of a sweat.
And therein lies a problem with “Money Monster.” This film is all about an intense situation, but the proceedings as played aren’t particularly intense. It’s kind of a go-through-the-motions scenario, and there were certain characters in the film whose lives never really felt in any real peril.
Furthermore, “Money Monster” goes for the seriousness of “Dog Day Afternoon” and tries to fuse it with the B-movie mentality of something like “Phone Booth,” and I don’t know that this marriage is entirely successful. The film has an undercurrent of humor, but there are times when said humor drains the movie of real tension. And some scenes are completely overplayed, including one in which Budwell’s pregnant girlfriend is brought in to to diffuse the situation. What she says when she gets to the studio, while cold and unexpected, evoked laughter at the screening I attended. This is a problem because I don’t know that this particular moment was designed to be funny. Sure, there are ignorant, selfish people in this world, but this woman’s behavior in this particular scene didn’t entirely ring true. In fact, there are other moments in “Money Monster” when characters don’t necessarily act the way you’d think a rational human being would act in this kind of a scenario. But then, I’ve never been in an actual hostage situation, so really … what the hell do I know?
What I do know is that “Money Monster” is breezy enough. At an hour and forty minutes, it never really outstays it’s welcome, but for a potboiler, it lacks the kind of real intensity that was needed to make it truly effective.
As for this film’s themes, the loyalty and commitment between the members of the TV show staff was more intriguing than the less-than-subtle political stuff. “Money Monster” will no doubt be written off by some as anti-capitalist propaganda, but it should be noted that to the credit of Jodie Foster and her screenwriting team, it’s a key capitalist character in “Money Monster” who offers up the most prophetic line of dialogue in this picture. Don’t worry, no spoilers here.
There’s a certain slightness to the relationships in “Money Monster,” and the writing never reaches the provocative heights of something like “The Big Short.” But thankfully, the acting is solid, and Foster keeps things moving along briskly enough that this is a far cry from the depths of a whiny hostage crisis movie like “John Q.”
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