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100Hitchcock called his most familiar subject "The Innocent Man Wrongly Accused." Jarecki pumps up the pressure here by giving us a Guilty Man Accurately Accused, and that's what makes the film so ingeniously involving.
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75Arbitrage is actually a fairly straightforward thriller in the John Grisham vein. It doesn't demand that the viewer know the difference between a hedge fund and a hedgehog. Arbitrage also reminds us that thrillers do not have to be action-packed to generate tension.
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91The film doesn't turn its issues into a glorified essay, but it does use them to give the audience a vital emotional workout.
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88It's instructive to note what a killer actor Richard Gere can be when a movie rises to his level. Arbitrage is such a movie, a sinfully entertaining look at the sins committed in the name of money.
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63Arbitrage is a breezy watch, with good performances that don't cut very deep and an eye for décor but little interest in what it's decorating. What's missing, really, is outrage, or a sense of the 99 percent.
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80"Just One More Chance," Billie Holiday implores on the soundtrack. The nice paradox of Arbitrage is that we're interested to see whether Robert gets one, even though he's the villain-in-chief of a suspense thriller whose plot turns on generalized scurrilousness. That's a tribute to Mr. Jarecki's smart writing, and to the take-no-prisoners performance of Mr. Gere.
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75In the end, Arbitrage disappoints a bit. The writing isn't as sharp, or sophisticated, as it needs be. And the cynicism exhibited by Miller and the circle of traders and tycoons he moves in seeps into the fabric of the story itself.
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63Even at his worst - and Robert does some awful things - the actor almost makes you root for him, hoping he'll get away with it.
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67There's a touch of Hitchcockian flavor to the Arbitrage's cat-and-mouse thrills, yet the film clearly announces that there's now a third gifted Jarecki brother (in addition to Eugene and Andrew) to contend with in the moviemaking business.
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75More seriously, Jarecki never quite pierces the skin of this world, capturing its shiny and grimy surfaces but failing to immerse us in its flaws; too often it's like flipping through a magazine story on the lives of the rich and corrupt.
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75Part "Law & Order" morality play, part "Wall Street" with a dash of the more recent and topically pertinent "Margin Call," Arbitrage hums along, complicating its narrative without tying itself in knots.
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50Every episode of "Law & Order" I've ever seen has a more complicated and plausible plot, punchier dialogue and more New York authenticity, all in less than half the time consumed by this poky would-be finance thriller.
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75There are few cinematic pleasures as satisfying to behold as an actor in a role that fits him like a Savile Row suit. Richard Gere offers just such gratification in Arbitrage, a silky, sophisticated Wall Street thriller that finds the actor utterly in his prime, wearing his age and accumulated emotional wisdom with warmth, charisma and nonstop appeal.
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50Instead of digging into the psychology and morality of greed, Mr. Jarecki only glances and lectures in that direction before piling on a lot of melodramatic complications, including a death, an investigation and a cynical detective (Tim Roth). These days, it seems, the illegal manipulation of hundreds of millions of dollars simply isn't enough to incite moral outrage.
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60Though it teeters at times on the edge between potboiler and melodrama, Arbitrage benefits from a notable lack of sympathy for Gere's Gordon Gekko-like Miller. Rather than seeming pat, Jarecki's straightforward cynicism is pointed and purposeful.
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75Between Gere matching wits with a police detective played by Tim Roth, and Gere having to explain himself to the steely Sarandon, Arbitrage is never dull.
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80Slick and grown-up as Richard Gere himself, this intricate fiscal thriller takes a dead bead on extreme privilege.
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75Arbitrage is never the nail-biting thriller that it could have been.
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80Part thriller, part character study, Arbitrage is Nicholas Jarecki's first feature, and it moves swiftly and confidently, with many details that feel exactly right. [24 Sept. 2012, p.98]
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80Amazingly, Gere keeps it all together, via a kind of seething anti-rage that speaks reams to the character's survival instincts.
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80Surprisingly entertaining, probably because it uses Wall Street shenanigans and schadenfreude as the backdrop to a crime drama.
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80Writer-director Nicholas Jarecki squarely lands that punch, creating a tense and chilling horror story for financially fraught times.
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83Arbitrage is a classy soap opera with a charismatic louse at its center, without "Margin Call" didactics, or the misplaced empathy of "The Company Men."
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25Features an exceedingly dapper Richard Gere in a series of nice suits and handsome close-ups that serve no purpose other than to remind us how exceedingly dapper Richard Gere looks in nice suits and handsome close-ups. The rest of the movie registers as a loss of: time, money, talent and logic.
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80Gere is being talked about as an Oscar contender - he's never been nominated. January is a long time off yet, but his name is certainly worth putting on the long list.
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80Nothing about the plot is novel, but the film easily maintains a low simmer that picks up in the final act, as Miller has to fight to keep his sinking ship staffed.
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75Despite an abrupt ending and the worst title of the year, Arbitrage manages to leverage real tension from its veteran stars in one of Hollywood's first pedigreed films of the fall.
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75If the film covers well-tread territory (a morally bankrupt player trying to prolong his own influence), it does so with pinpoint control of mood and theme.
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80Unfolding in somber tones and among hard surfaces, Arbitrage has the slickness of new bank notes and the confidence of expensive tailoring.
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60As much as Nicholas Jarecki’s debut feature simmers, it never quite boils.
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Mar 2, 201380You've seen it all before, but lead Richard Gere drenches the proceedings in the old razzle-dazzle.
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Sep 28, 201275As many of the most memorable and darker thrillers have, Arbitrage plays with affinities in order to completely confuse the drawing of any clear lines between good and evil, criminal and executive, skilled pro and callous cad.
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Sep 13, 201290Jarecki puts the veteran actor to brilliant use in the insanely gripping Arbitrage.
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Sep 13, 201260Gere does his best to give Arbitrage an agitated energy, but Jarecki's fatalism works against the film.
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Sep 5, 201280Between this cast and the conviction Jarecki brings to the table, the film feels incredibly accomplished for a first feature.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 16 out of 21
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Mixed: 2 out of 21
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Negative: 3 out of 21
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6
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Works well in that it makes you root for a completely unsympathetic character. Richard Gere is superb and largely to thank for that. A solid thriller.