Money Monster (M)
Starring: George Clooney, Julia Roberts
“MONEY Monster” is a film that, by and large, fails to live up to its high ideals.
It takes aim at the barons of Wall Street … with a pop gun.
Pitched as a movie with something to say, it seems to be struggling to work out exactly what that is.
Clooney stars as a loudmouth TV stock tipster bitten by one of his viewers, Kyle, who waltzes into the studio with a gun and a couple of bomb vests in one very hostile takeover indeed.
Kyle’s lost the lot – in his case 60 grand – by following one of the host’s stock tips.
But he doesn’t want his money back – he wants answers.
Set up the usual paranoia about the greedy money men who are swindling us, and off we go.
The supposedly tense scenes – with Clooney wearing a bomb vest and Kyle maniacally waving a handgun – go off like a damp squib.
Occupy? More like stultify.
The problem is a total lack of suspense. Even Julia Roberts as the producer, grimacing in the control room, fails to add any gravitas.
The film does, however, have one revelatory scene.
Having found Kyle’s heavily pregnant girlfriend, the police bring her in to try and defuse the situation.
To say her reaction is not as expected is the understatement of the year.
But one scene does not a movie make and, in the end, Money Monster collapses under the weight of its own pretentiousness and lack of ideas.
Not for the first time, it’s hard to escape the conclusion that director Jodie Foster has more to give from in front of the camera, rather than behind it.
– Jason Beck
