Confession: I will watch pretty much anything starring an alumni of the British television show “Skins.” A teenage melodrama that lasted from 2007 until 2013, the show and its subject matter (ranging from dysfunctional families to mental illness and everything in between) made a lasting impression on me. Almost ten years later, I’ve certainly grown out of its content and tone, but I’ve never quite grown out of its cast.
Which brings me to its somewhat loose connection to “Money Monster," Jack O’Connell. In “Skins,” Jack O’Connell (“Unbroken”) played a raging asshole who became more sympathetic than he had any right to be as the seasons progressed. O’Connell’s uncomfortably raw talent enthralled me at the time, and still does. Like many other “Skins” kids — Dev Patel (“Slumdog Millionaire,” "The Man Who Knew Infinity") and Nicholas Hoult (“X-Men: First Class”), to name just two with solid Hollywood resumes — I’ve followed his career with pointed interest. He’s the real reason I wanted to review “Money Monster,” and he’s the reason it worked for me, more than it probably should have.
“Money Monster” tells a familiar story, starting with financial TV host Lee Gates (George Clooney) and his director, Patty Finn (Julia Roberts). Lee is a predictably shallow human being who opens his show with bizarre dance numbers featuring two black back-up dancers, whom a viewer calls “strippers” later in the movie (gross, for so many reasons). He’s one of those guys who yells at you to buy or sell your stock and never really thinks about why. On screen, he’s offensive; off screen, he’s ridiculous. It’s no surprise to learn Patty is leaving the show soon for greener, less unpleasant pastures.
The movie opens after a company named Ibis loses an unprecedented $800 million in stockholders' money, seemingly overnight due to a glitch in its high-frequency trading algorithm. Lee’s show wants to interview Ibis CEO Walter Camby (Dominic West, “The Wire”), but just before the show airs they learn that he’s unreachable on his private plane and will be replaced by his chief communications officer, Diane Lester (Caitriona Balfe, “Outlander”) via an off-site interview.
Really, it’s just another normal day for the show, until Kyle Budwell (O’Connell) sneaks on set and starts waving a gun on air. After putting a bomb vest on Lee, his story comes out: His mother recently died, and he invested all of his inheritance in Ibis because Lee said their stock was “safer than a savings account.” Kyle wants answers, and an apology, and he’s prepared to die to get them.
What follows is standard hostage-movie fare, though thankfully Jodie Foster, in her director’s chair, manages to twist predictable situations just enough to keep it interesting. The cops are called, but they’re completely ineffectual and very nearly get Lee killed. They do track down Kyle’s pregnant girlfriend (Emily Meade), but when they set up a video call between her and Kyle, the reunion is not exactly what they hoped, and definitely not what the viewer expects. I won’t spoil it, because it’s one of the best scenes in the movie, but suffice to say it’s far from teary.
Meanwhile, Patty becomes the embodiment of “the show must go on,” though not to perversely grab for ratings. She keeps the cameras live and Lee calm purely to survive this ordeal, and she’s the driving force behind the scenes to figure out what happened with Ibis and how to pacify Kyle before he goes too far. Eventually, she enlists Diane Lester’s help, and with each revelation of Camby’s shadiness, Lee and Kyle end up on the same side. Lee wants to know what Camby did just as much as Kyle, because Lee was the mouthpiece. He told the world to trust Ibis, and Ibis betrayed all of them.
It’s not much of a spoiler to say Camby is the villain of the movie. A suave, married CEO who values “transparency” in public while having an affair with Diane in private? Of course he is. He’s exactly the kind of man Leonardo DiCaprio plays in “The Wolf of Wall Street,” though “Money Monster” rightfully makes him the villain instead of glorifying his awful, selfish, life-ruining behavior. (Confession #2: I have never hated a movie more than I hated “The Wolf of Wall Street.”)
Unfortunately, this movie doesn’t really go deep enough into the conspiracy to satisfy its goals. “Money Monster” is ultimately a hostage movie, not an exposé of Wall Street, with an added and very mild critique of media consumption. Throughout the crisis, viewers are glued to the television, and they don’t help Lee when he asks them to buy Ibis’s stock as an early attempt to recoup Kyle’s losses. And then, when the crisis is over, they look away and turn its outcome into an internet meme. In a better director’s hands and with a tighter screenwriter’s pen, that moment could have been powerful, but instead it’s hollow. It leaves you cold, and not in the way it’s supposed to.
That’s really where “Money Monster” falls short. The performances are all good, and the characters intriguing, but it just doesn’t go far enough to have any real implications outside of its small universe. As a result, many things become unintentionally humorous. There was a lot of laughter in my audience during scenes I’m pretty sure weren’t supposed to be funny, but at the same time, it’s hard to tell when the script is a little weak in the first place.
“Money Monster” isn’t damning enough or even satirical enough to make you think about the world we live in, where our money travels at the speed of light and could disappear the second one person with access decides to take it. It’s the kind of movie you’d find on TV one afternoon and leave it on because even though it’s not great, it’s still a lot better than whatever’s on the next channel.
And O’Connell? Well, you’ll probably end up leaving it on for him more than anyone else. I may be biased, but he’s this movie’s saving grace. He makes you care in a movie that wants you to care, but fails to commit to it. He commits, as he always does, and it’s a pleasure to watch. In the end, “Money Monster” is worth a view just for him.