Timing is everything with movie releases. Much like the stock market.
If “Money Monster” had come out in 2009, maybe this movie could’ve whipped up some authentic outrage about the finagling and foolishness that led to the financial meltdown in 2008. It lags behind “The Big Short,” last year’s slapstick comedy version of the disaster.
The movie’s bravado almost makes up for the stale situation. Here, disappointed working-class stockholder Kyle Budwell (Jack O’Connell) breaks into a TV studio and takes a hostage, while America looks on.
The hostage is TV host Lee Gates (George Clooney, in deft form), one of those alleged financial wizards that populate cable news — oh, let’s drop the pretense, he’s obviously supposed to be like Jim Cramer, the flailing, yammering CNBC “personality.”
Gates is barely into his live shtick when Budwell waves a gun at his head and orders him to put on a vest loaded with explosives. The gunman blames Gates for a tip on a particular global stock, which tanked the previous day. In the control booth, director Patty Fenn (Julia Roberts) keeps her cameras rolling, because Budwell says to.
The drama escalates along with various stabs at black comedy. The best of the latter comes when Gates makes a heartfelt plea to all the folks out there in TV land: If only each viewer would buy up a small amount of this one troublesome stock, the value will rise, and the hostage-taker will get his money back.
I won’t blow the punch line to this scene, but it’s the one moment in the film when things really blossom into bracing cynicism. If this movie wants to be a satire like “Network,” it needs to go for the throat more often.
Director Jodie Foster — she stays behind the camera on this one — builds the tension and the desperation like an old pro. At a quick 96 minutes, “Money Monster” doesn’t waste any time.
O’Connell, the young lead from “Unbroken,” is a lot less interesting here. And Roberts focuses her star power on speaking into a headset, which seems like an unfortunate use of resources.
“Money Monster” tries to do a bunch of things, like explain how algorithms affect stock prices. It’s all admirably intended to combine suspense with social comment, but with its breathless revelations about how the system is rigged and TV is sensationalized, this film is too little, too late.
“Money Monster” 2 1/2 stars
A TV financial wizard (George Clooney, in deft form) is taken hostage on the air by a disgruntled stockholder (Jack O’Connell) in this would-be satire. Director Jodie Foster keeps the pulse pounding, but the movie’s breathless revelations about how the system is rigged and TV is sensationalized are not exactly revelations. With Julia Roberts.
Rating: R, for language, violence
Showing: Alderwood, Cinebbar, Everett, Monroe, Marysville, Stanwood, Pacific Place, Sundance Cinemas, Thornton Place, Woodinville, Cascade Mall
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