Returning to feature directing five years after the dark comedy “The Beaver,” Jodie Foster rips into the structures which amplify corporate malfeasance and the forces that effect everyday citizens in “Money Monster.” Sounds like a blast, right? That’s why her latest stars George Clooney as Lee Gates, the charismatic, abrasive and very successful host of a financial advice television show. And though the movie has some uneven moments Clooney has the gravitas and the fluid energy and control to guide audiences through its occasionally tricky patches.
On the eve of his long-suffering producer’s exit, Gates is taken hostage by a young man demanding the talking head answer for pitching an investment that turned out to be a sinkhole. Pitched in the middle ground between Spike Lee‘s “Inside Man” and Adam McKay‘s “The Big Short,” Foster’s film isn’t an economic crisis story, but an indictment of the elements of press and corporate structure that prevent transparency in financial dealings. Vacillating between tense stand-offs and dense market explanations, “Money Monster” is a well-intentioned, fitfully effective thriller and a committed but never quite scathing pronouncement of media morality.
The film opens chaotically, even stressfully. Lee Gates is a bit Trump and a bit Howard Stern; he performs with used car salesman patter refined for the uptight conservative set. Wearing outrageous hats and flanked by dancing girls Gates, bounds onto the stage of his financial advice show like a vaudeville showman, not a CPA. Gates goes for noisy information overload in part to cover his actual naiveté. His show is a down to the wire operation that comes together at the last minute thanks in no small part to a hard-working staff led by producer extraordinaire Patty Fenn (Julia Roberts). Fenn saves Gates’ ass on the regular; naturally he shows no excess appreciation.
Fenn is smart and perceptive, but she’s always guided by the whims of her demanding boss and his outsized personality. From the outset it’s clear: Gates is mostly inflated ego. As he struggles to arrange lunch and air time with various financial figures, particularly the CEO of a company Gates has pitched as an amazing investment, we can also see that the talking head is not as powerful as his sense of self suggests. The guy might not be a fraud, exactly, but neither is he an insightful oracle, and his sense of responsibility isn’t merely dominated by his impetuousness — it is being crushed entirely.
Trouble is, there’s no one to force Gates to properly report on the stock picks he trumpets from his show’s elevated pulpit. Journalistic integrity? Forget about it. Enter Kyle (Jack O’Connell), a very angry 20-something who lost his entire fortune on a stock pitched by Gates. After sneaking on set, armed with a gun and explosives, Kyle demands the loudmouth host becomes accountable for his role in pushing an unreliable investment.
At this point, “Money Monster” has to balance two primary impulses: maintaining the tense setup of what is essentially a single-room thriller, and explaining all the financial background of the investment scheme that destroyed Kyle’s fortunes as it crumbled. The script, by Alan Di Fiore, Jim Kouf and Jamie Linden, doesn’t have as much ground to cover as “The Big Short,” but it also isn’t as elastic and daring either.
Most of the action here is in the taut and often effective interplay between Clooney and O’Connell, as Gates’ seasoned media instincts kick in, allowing him to manipulate the young invader, who is very much out of his element. Foster has a solid command of the material, and stages the action from falling into simple two-shot staginess. While Clooney and O’Connell work well together, the star’s best chemistry is, no surprise, with Julia Roberts. Unfortunately the two are rarely on screen at the same time, as her character spends most of the film sequestered in a control booth. From the standpoint of story logistics that’s a tough hurdle to cross (it entirely makes sense that she’d be there) but it’s a shame to have them so close yet ultimately far apart.
Frequent surprises and reversals crop up as Gates’ staff and the attentive police seek to defuse and control the situation. There’s a goofy moment with a new erectile cream, and the arrival of Kyle’s harpy-ish girlfriend, played by Emily Meade. Many of these reversals test the story’s already-strained credulity. So watching “Money Monster” is a cycle of being lured into the story’s contrivances thanks to the cast’s energy and Foster’s inventiveness, only to have each new plot turn force a soft reset on suspension of disbelief.
“Money Monster” has plenty to say, especially on the subject of journalists and television personalities who fail to properly research their subjects. As Gates is forced to face the fact that his financial recommendation may in fact be controlled by a CEO who is neck-deep in fraudulent activity, we’re left wondering how far this not-quite-journalist will be pushed before he actually puts his resources to work figuring out what is really going on with companies he vets for his audience.
The film’s stand-off leads to a strange march through Manhattan’s financial district, and a confrontation with the CEO whose activities precipitated the whole mess. But this odd parade is limp as a symbolic protest, and drains most of the film’s accumulated pressure as it stomps forward to what seems like a foregone conclusion. “Money Monster” represents a difficult situation for Foster: we distrust Gates because of who he is, but we come around to him because of Clooney’s personality. Yet the film is never as salvage as the first-act anarchy suggests it might be, and its best ideas are subsumed into familiar thriller concepts. Good craftsmanship elevates the result above workaday thriller territory, but ultimately “Money Monster” never rages in the “mad as hell” mode that’s always kept just out of reach. [C+]