Interesting role for Gere, but it’s not a likable one

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This article was published 12/10/2012 (5109 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

AS an actor, Richard Gere has always been more interesting when he isn’t playing a hero, romantic or otherwise.

The Hoax, Chicago, Internal Affairs, yes. Shall We Dance, Runaway Bride, Pretty Woman, no thanks.

That makes Arbitrage an interesting movie. His character, wealthy hedge-fund manager Robert Miller, is the picture of respectability in the high-finance realm in which he strides so confidently. Gere, still preternaturally handsome at 63, assumes the role with regal authority.

Of course, the notion of “respectability” among Wall Street tycoons has undergone something of a negative shift in recent years. In a few well-staged scenes, writer-director Nicholas Jarecki elegantly exposes the less-than-respectable qualities of Miller as he excuses himself from his loving family’s celebration of his 60th birthday for an assignation with his high-maintenance mistress Julie (Laetitia Casta).

On the business side of things, Miller is no less compromised. He is attempting to sell his company to a wily banker (played by Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter), which requires that he cover up a badly invested $400-million gap in the company bottom line by deceptive means. Miller’s own daughter (Brit Marling) is the company’s chief financial officer, and Miller is feeling the knowledge that the sins of the father may be visited on his most cherished offspring.

But suddenly, Miller faces an even sleazier scandal when an attempted getaway with Julie results in a fatal accident. Mysteriously, he turns to Jimmy (Nate Parker), a young black man from Harlem, to drive him from the scene. The move not only inflames the suspicions of a class-conscious New York detective (Tim Roth), it threatens Jimmy’s immediate future in the bargain.

While functioning as a moral critique of the amoral world of high finance, Arbitrage actually feels like a companion piece to Gere’s 1980 movie American Gigolo, in which he likewise played a well-dressed smooth operator whose meticulously constructed environment threatens to come crashing down around him.

But Gere’s hustler here is even less likable. It’s a problem. The only time Robert Miller ever registers joy in his life is when he is finally obliged to engage with a banker in a good old-fashioned business negotiation over lunch. Will Miller prevail, or succumb to the forces cumulated against him? It’s difficult to care.

Watching Arbitrage is like watching Jaws from the perspective of the shark, a figure who only demonstrates feeling when chowing down on his designated victim.

randall.king@freepress.mb.ca

Arbitrage

Starring Richard Gere and Nate Parker

Polo Park

14A

100 minutes

3 stars out of five