Money Monster

Hating on Wall Street is the new national pastime. And Jodie Foster, in her fourth film as a director, goes for the burn. That she does it in the form of a vividly entertaining action thriller starring George Clooney and Julia Roberts is icing on the cake. Like last years The Big Short, Money Monster wants you to laugh till it hurts. But Fosters subject isnt just the corrupt financial system but the human beings getting mangled in its gears.

A stellar Clooney plays Lee Gates, the host of TVs Money Monster, in which he gives stock tips between clownish dance numbers and comedy bits. (Think a more extreme version of Mad Moneys Jim Cramer.) Gates treats everyone like crap, including Patty Fenn (an excellent Roberts), his long-suffering producer, whos thinking of jumping ship. Then, midshow, a guy wired with explosives pushes into the studio, points a gun at Gates and holds him hostage on live TV. The guy, Kyle Budwell (Jack OConnell), having lost his savings on a Gates tip, wants revenge and a chance to expose a rigged system.

Thats the setup, which Foster engineers for maximum, real-time, ticking-bomb suspense. As Budwell moves Gates downtown to Wall Street to confront the CEO (Dominic West) who blames a technical glitch for his companys flame- out, Foster moves her film from a pulse-quickening nail-biter, with SWAT teams and choppers swirling, to an incisive look at a beleaguered America undergoing a crisis of faith.

Clooney has plenty of fun mocking the empty suit hes playing, but he ups the ante by showing the fear, self-hatred and buried integrity that are eating at Gates. And Roberts makes her harried producer an oasis of calm in the gathering storm. What the script lacks in emotional subtext youll find in their richly detailed performances. Unlike Budwell, Gates hasnt let his rage against the machine push him over the line. Not yet, anyway. Fosters film doesnt doubt that money rules our lives. But it does wonder, provocatively, why were dumb enough to let it.