When I saw the trailer for Arbitrage I wasn't super impressed, but thought it had some potential to be a great thriller. It tells the story of billionaire Robert Miller and his incredibly secretive life. Dude is fucking bitches left and right, and apparently committing fraud, as well.
The first half hour of the movie were great and made for a great set-up into what I was hoping would be a great thriller. Needless to say, I was horrible mistaken. This movie was nothing like I expected. It was a real character study of how money effects our lives, and how money can insult you from the law. Too bad writer/director Nicholas Jarecki couldn't write his way out of a paperbag. This script was so disjointed and just...bland. There was only one conversation in this film that really elicited any emotion from me, and I'm not even sure it was because of the script.
The most redeeming quality of this film were the performances from Richard Gere and Brit Marling (I will talk a lot about her when I finally get around to reviewing Sound of My Voice.) Richard Gere delivers a great performance, but not nearly as great as people are saying. I've never really thought of Gere as a great actor (don't even get me started on Chicago.) I think the only movie I've actually liked him in was The Jackal, which I think just says more about my childhood than anything. He delivered a good performance, for him. It was definitely better than anything else he's done before, which surprised me. But really, nothing special. He definitely didn't deserve the Golden Globe nom that he got (which is the only real reason I saw this movie.) I'm kind of disgusted that he got the nom over Ewan McGregor for The Impossible (I really can't talk about that movie enough.)
Brit Marling, on the other hand, was excellent. This is only the second film I've seen her in, so I can't really say if this was on par for her or not, but it was great. Not as good as Sound of My Voice, but I wouldn't be surprised if that was her best performance ever. God, so good.
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This movie was alright, nothing special. If you like a good character study, then you might enjoy it. It has a lot of bland dialogue and mediocre acting (aside from Marling and Gere.) The direction is nothing special, either. I'll give Jarecki a pass, since it was his first film and was decent, but I hope his next film is better than this.
Writing: 3/10
Directing: 5/10
Acting: 7/10
Pacing: 3/10
Rewatchability: 2/10
Score: 4.0/10
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