Despite a weird and kind of funny title, Arbitrage, a financial thriller starring Richard Gere, picked up some pretty impressive notices at Sundance, with many critics saying it was one of the best films at the festival. With an early Fall release date planned, we now have the first trailer, which looks kind of alright.
The plot synopsis is as follows:
Arbitrage, the feature-directing debut of writer Nicholas Jarecki (The Informers, The Weight), is a taut and alluring suspense thriller about love, loyalty, and high finance. Troubled New York hedge-fund magnate Robert Miller (Richard Gere) desperate to complete the sale of his trading empire makes an error that forces him to turn to an unlikely person for help.
While I can’t claim to be Richard Gere‘s biggest fan, and I don’t buy the idea of him as a hedge fund billionaire anymore than I did when he was playing a hot shot lawyer, he looks to be doing decent work in the film. Gere has been great in the past and one of the pull quotes from the trailer says his performance is Oscar worthy, so just maybe we’ll see a decent performance from him.
Even if he doesn’t live up to the promise, the excellent supporting cast will likely step up to the plate. The always reliable Susan Sarandon plays Gere’s wife and can do this performance standing on her head. Elsewhere, the multi-tasker of the moment, Brit Marling, plays Gere’s daughter and Tim Roth dons an impressive moustache while chewing up the scenery as a detective investigating the Gere character.
This is likely to be a totally unremarkable piece of filmmaking that could just be a good time at the cinema. We have seen all of the beats before and you can probably spot the ending a mile off, but that’s no reason to be disheartened. The film looks entertaining and Gere looks competent.
Arbitrage rolls out day in date in cinemas and on demand on September 14th. Check out the trailer below.
Source: First Showing
