I had to go into town to pick up some train tickets today, so to make it worthwhile went to the cinema too. Looking at the listings, this was the only that appealed to me. The rest were kids films, or adult films that are basically kids films. But this one looked like a meaty prospect, with George Clooney and a hostage situation. My main concern was Julia Roberts would be too lightweight, but she was actually good as the low-key director of Clooney's madcap money show.
Rather like films that are on a submarine or in space, you can't go wrong with a hostage film. And if that's combined with live TV in a studio setting it's even better. The actual TV segment called Money Monster was entertaining too, and I remember thinking ten minutes in that I would be quite happy just watching Clooney ham it up as a celebrity TV host. He is of course deliberately superficial, and that starts a theme of satire that runs through the film. There are twin targets modern culture of social media, and the obscure world of financial markets.
My favourite part was at the denouement when the classic bar-scene of ordinary people following the action on the bar TV are all transfixed, then after a decent pause, they go back to playing table football. It was a nice point quite subtly made, and I'm sure lost on the women next to me who were giggling and trying to stop a mobile phone from ringing, until she got another call and actually answered it, and I angrily whispered for her to put the phone away.
Back to the film - this was the first time I've been to the cinema in months and I enjoyed it. Clooney is magnetic, Roberts isn't annoying and it's a very well-paced plot. Every time the tension sags it immediately builds back up again. My only gripe was that in order to create a neat story it turned out that the evil CEO (Dominic West) really was hatching a meddling plan, whereas the film might have made a greater impact in the long term if they simply accepted that the financial world is murky and intractable. I also didn't feel any sympathy for the everyman kidnapper.
