Arbitrage

Directed by Nicholas Jarecki

(R)

***

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This Wall Street thriller offers a “solid investment” for ticket buyers, said Scott Bowles in USA Today. “A brisk tale of a financial wizard whose sins have returned to collect a debt,” it is consistently saved from preachiness by the subtle performances of its stellar veteran cast. Richard Gere always projects a “preoccupied, distracted air,” and here his trademark manner “works extremely well,” said Michael Phillips in the Chicago Tribune. The hedge fund titan he plays is a silver-haired cheat with a jet, a mistress, and an adoring public, and if Gere hadn’t delivered one of his most “astute” performances, “you’d be rooting for his character’s violent comeuppance 30 seconds into the picture.” Director Nicholas Jarecki “gets terrific supporting turns right down the line,” beginning with Susan Sarandon as the billionaire’s wife, said Ann Hornaday in The Washington Post. “At times, the movie resembles one of those ripped-from-the-headlines episodes of Law & Order,” but it’s never simply the tale of a fall from grace. Is Gere’s plutocrat “a bad good man or a good bad man?” You’ll enjoy wondering.