Money Monster review

A financial TV show is hijacked by an investor who lost everything.

Here’s a film that seems to have come out of nowhere, and it’s well worth seeking out.

Jodie Foster puts her directing hat on her for her fourth feature; with the 53 year old also helming episodes of Orange is the New Black and House of Cards. And she’s conjured up impressive flick in Money Monster.

It has to do with the fallout from a company’s share price plummeting overnight, something which moneyman Lee Gates (George Clooney) has commented on a thousand times. But it’s all brought home when a young man called Kyle (Jack O’Connell) invades the studio and demands to be heard.

That’s plenty of fodder for a tense drama but Foster does a good job of bringing more to the table with jabs at the financial marketplace and plenty of touches of comedy which help to humanise the folks involved.

It’s a relatively small scale piece for the first two thirds and loses some of its efficacy when that perspective gets wider as the ending approaches but it’s never less than watchable.

Clooney really goes for it in his role as Gates, all bluster and self-importance but uses his unique charm to never quite seem unlikeable. He’s well matched with the show’s director played by Julia Roberts, a calm alternative who has heard it all before.

Young O’Connell is well cast too, bringing a contrasting energy to the piece. He’s an angry young man with nothing left to lose but more than a mindless thug. It’s a complex part and one that’s played with remarkable restraint by the 25 year old Brit. He could have easily gone big with the part but instead works in partnership with Clooney brilliantly.

By the end, things move in a more clichéd direction but that doesn’t take away from the combination of strong performances, deft direction and a story that could have been torn from today’s papers.

4/5

-Daniel Anderson