There’s a brief set of shots near the end of director Jodie Foster’s MONEY MONSTER that are chilling. They almost seem like an afterthought, and one might assume that by the time they are on the screen, audience members will be mentally and actually packing up and getting ready to leave the theater. Just to back things up a bit, the film is a real-time story of a working-class man who lost every cent he has because, as he perceives it, a showboating TV financial host gave a bad stock tip on the air. He sneaks into the host’s studio with a gun, holds him hostage, and demands answers as to how a supposed computer glitch caused the company he invested in to lose $800 million in a single second. The whole drama plays out with cameras rolling, on live TV, with all of New York watching from various bars, homes, workplaces and electronics stores across the city.
When the drama is over (don’t worry, I won’t ruin anything), bullets have been fired, blood has been spilled, and the truth about the missing money has been revealed quite dramatically and unforgettably…or so we think. And while I originally believed that Foster’s goal with Money Monster is to underscore how financial institutions devour everything in their path, with no regard for the little guy (or even the medium-sized guy), in the quest for the most money, it was in those final shots that I discovered a truth far more terrible.
Once the hostage drama has subsided, the film revisits the series of locations around the city and shows us, not outraged citizens demanding answers and remedies to social injustice, but instead, shot after shot of people going back to their days as if nothing has happened. They go nose-first into their mobile devices or back to dinner or drinking or studying. The world keeps turning because most people don’t understand the full ramifications of anything to do with corrupt banks and savings and loan institutions. The moment took me so by surprise, I felt like I’d be gut-punched by the realization that we have a desperate need for things to go back to normal, and we’re willing to push aside anything that threatens that feeling, especially if we’re not totally clear on what the danger actually is. Director Foster (and writers Jamie Linden, Alan DiFiore and Jim Kouf) are smart enough to understand this phenomenon without feeling the need to underscore it with a neon yellow highlighter.
Part of the reason MONEY MONSTER’s secondary message is so powerful is because most of the film works as a fast-paced thriller. The show’s host, Lee Gates (a going-for-broke George Clooney) is enough of a self-absorbed ass that you can believe a member of his viewing audience might actually find him at fault for a bad tip. But when Kyle Budwell (Jack O’Connell, who still considers heavy breathing and letting his mouth hang open to be the marks of a serious actor) walks into the studio with gun in hand, a bomb-rigged vest for Gates, and a slew of four-letter words to let loose on basic cable television, his demands are just vague and unthought out enough that we get a sense that maybe Gates’ audience members are about as sharp as a marble. O’Connell’s look and accent are about as canned as any one of the Dead End Kids, but he grows on you to the degree.
Gates’ longtime producer, Patty Fenn (Julia Roberts), sits in the control room, talking into his earpiece, trying to feed him helpful information and general ideas about how to calm the raging maniac in the studio with him. Budwell’s primary objective is to get the company’s CEO (Dominic West) down to the studio to answer the unasked questions about this supposed glitch, but he is nowhere to be found for a time. Instead, the company’s communications officer, Diane Lester (an impressive Caitriona Balfe, the Irish actress best known stateside from her role in “Outlander”), who tows the company line before she begins to suspect her boss might be hiding something.
I liked the idea that these splashy TV personalities are actually forced to become investigative reporters for a day, with admittedly a few too many of the answers to their questions coming rather easily. The film is quite critical of the financial press for not digging deeper whenever an impropriety occurs involving banks or investment companies. MONEY MONSTER spends a bit too much time dealing with the teams of law enforcement and hostage negotiators outside the studio trying to find a way to end this standoff. I like Giancarlo Esposito as much as anyone, but the hostage situation isn’t really the point of the story.
The film has an unexpected amount of dark humor, which is typified when Gates makes a plea to his audience to buy stock in the failing company that Budwell invested in to help bring the stock price up, regain some of the lost revenue, and save his life in the process. The viewership doesn’t respond quite the way he expects them to. The film’s final act has the remaining studio team (including a single cameraman) head out to the street of New York to meet with West, who is beginning to sense that this day may not end in his favor. As much as I was willing to suspend disbelief for the film’s in-studio drama, which plays out like a theater piece, I didn’t buy the walk of shame segment, with New Yorkers screaming at Kyle to pull the trigger on Gates, who at this point, is more of an ally than anyone realizes.
With the exception of O’Connell’s playing-to-the-upper-balcony style, the acting in MONEY MONSTER is strong and convincing. Roberts, in particular, rattles off producer commands like an old, slightly jaded pro, who is actually not so secretly planning to leave the show for a competing channel soon. Gates negotiates for time and answers from Budwell like a great wheeler-dealer, and it’s fascinating to watch him cut loose like he’s been doing it his whole career (which he most certainly has not). He’s brash, emotional, hot-tempered and scared, and he makes it all look easy and maybe a little bit fun. MONEY MONSTER has its flaws, to be sure, but that doesn’t make it any less watchable or entertaining. It moves at a nice clip, with very little fat on the bones, and you might even learn something about human nature (even if you’re not learning much about the way the financial world ticks).
