WARNING: THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS. THIS IS A MOVIE THAT’S HARD FOR ME TO TALK ABOUT WITHOUT GIVING CERTAIN THINGS AWAY, SO READ AT YOUR OWN PERIL.

Definition of Arbitrage:

1. The nearly simultaneous purchase and sale of securities or foreign exchange in different markets in order to profit from price discrepancies.

2. The purchase of the stock of a takeover target especially with a view to selling it profitably to the raider.

“Arbitrage” looks like your average thriller which is better suited to the usual made for TV movie on network television or the Lifetime Channel. However, it turns out to be a brilliant thriller as it takes a seemingly simple story and spins it into a complex one filled with characters that seem easy to figure out but prove to be anything but. Just when you think this will be a film about what’s right and wrong, it becomes one in which everyone finds their moral values permanently compromised no matter how good their intentions are.

Richard Gere stars as Robert Miller, a hedge fund magnate whose every inch of his being oozes success like it’s supposed to. Robert looks to have all the money he ever needs, a loving family, a loyal wife, grandkids and the whole nine yards. We soon find, however, that he is deeply immersed in fraudulent practices that could tear his whole empire down if exposed. Robert’s only salvation is to sell off his trading empire to a major bank before his wall street crimes are revealed so that he may pay off all his debts for good.

But things get seriously complicated for Robert when he is driving to upstate New York with his mistress Julie (Laetitia Casta) and their car flips over on the road. The crash ends up killing Julie and leaving Robert in a serious predicament as he cannot report what happened to the police. If he does it will seriously delay the sale of his company which could put him and his family on the brink of financial disaster. The walls continue to close in when NYPD Detective Michael Bryer (Tim Roth) is assigned to the case and finds circumstantial evidence which implicates Robert in Julie’s death. The question is how much longer he can keep up this moral duplicity before it undoes him permanently.

“Arbitrage” marks the directorial debut of writer Nicholas Jarecki whose work is said to deal with larger than life characters and morally ambiguous themes of industry, power, and corruption. What I loved about his direction here was how naturalistic everything seemed, be it the acting or the setting. No one in the cast overdoes their performance which makes for a more invigorating cinematic experience.

Jarecki also gives us some brilliantly conceived characters that appear to represent right and wrong very clearly, but as the story goes on we find that all of them are not immune to moral compromises. Even the police detective who represents the working class American who is sick of being screwed over by the rich proves he is not above bending the rules to get a conviction. All this time Julie becomes less of a human being and more of a bargaining chip for everybody involved.

I was listening to an interview with Richard Gere and NPR’s Audie Cornish who remarked how she’s always rooting for the actor no matter what character he plays. Whether he’s playing a slick defense attorney who lives for self-promotion in “Primal Fear” or as a seriously corrupt cop in “Internal Affairs,” Gere comes across as strangely likable even when his characters are jerks to say the least. His role as Robert Miller is further proof of that as he portrays the kind of person we love to hate in these endlessly difficult economic times.

Robert is at his heart a slick manipulator and a liar; he deceives his children, cheats on his wife, he is knowingly committing fraud, and he is not about to accept any responsibility for his mistress’ death. Throughout “Arbitrage’s” running time, Gere is riveting as he tries to stay one step ahead of the law and we find ourselves rooting for him to do so. We should despise this man and his morally duplicitous ways, but you have to admit that Robert is a very smart guy who has managed to stay afloat despite some bad decisions.

Although his New York accent sounds a little weird, Tim Roth is also excellent as NYPD detective who becomes bent on taking Robert down. His character of Michael Bryer is on the side of law and justice, but he proves to be as ruthless as Robert while he pursues witnesses relentlessly and has no problem threatening their livelihoods in order to get a conviction.

Nate Parker plays Jimmy Grant; a family friend of Robert’s who helps him out of and then finds himself in the middle of his problems. Jimmy is a familiar character in that he is caught between doing the right thing and keeping his mouth shut and we see so many of them in movies. But Parker does great work in conveying Jimmy’s inner turmoil to where this character seems like anything but a cliché, and he makes you feel what it’s like to walk in his shoes.

Brit Marling is wonderful as Robert’s daughter and heir-apparent Brooke, and seeing her transition from loyal daughter to one whose trust is forever shattered is heartbreaking. Her scene with Gere will remind those of us who have been put into impossible situations we cannot easily extricate ourselves from, and that look on her face is one that never goes away.

But it’s Susan Sarandon who almost steals the show as Robert’s wife Ellen, and she reminds us what a powerhouse of an actress she can be. Sarandon portrays Ellen as loyal almost to a fault, but she reveals vulnerabilities throughout which indicate she knows more about what’s going on than Robert realizes. Sarandon’s final confrontation with Gere is a knockout as she comes up with an extra strategy that’s as brilliant as the one Katie Holmes pulled on Tom Cruise.

In addition there’s also a wealth of beautiful cinematography by Yorick Le Saux and a music score by Cliff Martinez which fits this material like a glove.

I was stunned at how much I liked “Arbitrage,” and it really is one of the best movies I’ve seen so far this year. It’s the kind of film that you can’t quite prepare yourself for how good it will be because it came cloaked in trailers and advertisements that make it look ho-hum. Jarecki however gives us a film that is anything but average, and I thank him for that.

* * * * out of * * * *

Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions announced recently that they've acquired the film "Arbitrage", which recently has its world premiere at this year's Sundance Film Festival. The film is directed by Nicholas Jarecki, who making his directorial debut. Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon, Tim Roth star in the film.

Press Release:

LIONSGATE® (NYSE: LGF), a leading global entertainment company, and Roadside Attractions have together acquired U.S. distribution rights to Nicholas Jarecki’s ARBITRAGE. The announcement was made jointly by Steve Beeks, President and Co-COO of Lionsgate, and by Roadside Attractions’ Co-Presidents Howard Cohen and Eric d'Arbeloff. The acquisition was made following the well-received world premiere of the film at the Sundance International Film Festival.

ARBITRAGE is a taut and alluring suspense thriller about love, loyalty, and high finance starring Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon, Tim Roth, Brit Marling, Laetitia Casta, and Nate Parker. The film was written and directed by Nicholas Jarecki, and is his first narrative feature. It was produced by Laura Bickford (Traffic, Duplicity), Kevin Turen, Justin Nappi, and Robert Salerno (A Single Man), and executive produced by Brian Young, Mohammed Al Turki, Lisa Wilson, Stanislaw Tyczynski, Lauren Versel, Maria Teresa Areda and Ron Curtis.

ARBITRAGE will be a Lionsgate / Roadside Attractions release, continuing the strong partnership between the two companies that led to the success of last year's MARGIN CALL, also released by both companies.  Also acquired at Sundance, that film struck a chord in the zeitgeist and was a commercial success in both its theatrical and VOD release formats.  It was also nominated for an Oscar® for Best Original Screenplay.  The two companies have also jointly acquired EVERYTHING MUST GO and FRIENDS WITH KIDS.

“We are thrilled that we’ve found another film that is such a perfect fit for a Lionsgate / Roadside partnered release,” said Lionsgate’s President of Acquisitions and Co-Productions Jason Constantine.” ARBITRAGE is an incredible directorial debut by Nicholas Jarecki.  Richard Gere gives one of the best performances of his extraordinary career.  Susan Sarandon, Tim Roth, Nate Parker, Brit Marling and Laetitia Casta all turn in incredible supporting performances.  The film is an intense thriller set against the backdrop of a very specific time and place on Wall Street, but it’s also more than that- it shows so poignantly how interconnected we all are, and how a series of choices by a few people can affect so many.”

"This is a knockout performance by Richard Gere in Nicholas Jarecki's smart and twisty Wall Street thriller. Following our great experience on MARGIN CALL, Roadside is thrilled to partner again with Lionsgate on another zeitgeisty film for grownups," said Roadside Co-Presidents Howard Cohen and Eric d'Arbeloff.

Added director Nicholas Jarecki, "I am overjoyed to be working with Roadside and Lionsgate and their pioneering teams. From the first day of this film I've felt an invisible hand guiding our luck forward; it was the collective dedication of our actors, crew, and now our new releasing partners. I can't wait for people to see Richard and the cast's beautiful, hauntingly electric work on-screen."

Graham Taylor at WME Global negotiated deal on behalf of the filmmakers, with attorney Linda Lichter of Lichter Grossman Nichols Adler & Feldman. The deal was negotiated on behalf of Lionsgate by Beeks and Constantine with Eda Kowan, SVP of Acquisitions, Wendy Jaffe, EVP Business and Legal Affairs, and Ron Schwartz, General Manager and EVP of Home Entertainment Distribution.

About ARBITRAGE
ARBITRAGE, the feature directorial debut of writer Nicholas Jarecki, is a taut and alluring suspense thriller about love, loyalty, and high finance. When we first meet New York hedge-fund magnate Robert Miller (Richard Gere) on the eve of his 60th birthday, he appears the very portrait of success in American business and family life. But behind the gilded walls of his mansion, Miller is in over his head, desperately trying to complete the sale of his trading empire to a major bank before the depths of his fraud are revealed. Struggling to conceal his duplicity from loyal wife Ellen (Susan Sarandon) and brilliant daughter and heir-apparent Brooke (Brit Marling), Miller's also balancing an affair with French art-dealer Julie Côte (Laetitia Casta). Just as he's about to unload his troubled empire, an unexpected bloody error forces him to juggle family, business, and crime with the aid of Jimmy Grant (Nate Parker), a face from Miller's past. One wrong turn ignites the suspicions of NYPD Detective Michael Bryer (Tim Roth), who will stop at nothing in his pursuits.  Running on borrowed time, Miller is forced to confront the limits of even his own moral duplicity. Will he make it out before the bubble bursts?

ARBITRAGE is written and directed by Nicholas Jarecki and stars Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon, Tim Roth, Brit Marling, Laetitia Casta and Nate Parker. Stuart Margolin, Chris Eigeman and Bruce Altman co-star and Vanity Fair editor-in-chief Graydon Carter appears as James Mayfield.  Laura Bickford, Kevin Turen, Justin Nappi and Robert Salerno produced the project, with Brian Young, Mohammed Al Turki, Lisa Wilson, Stanislaw Tyczynski, Lauren Versel, Maria Teresa Areda and Ron Curtis serving as executive producers. The Arbitrage creative team includes director of photography Yorick Le Saux (I Am Love, Carlos), production designer Beth Mickle (Drive), editor Douglas Crise (Babel), costume designer Joe Aulisi (Charlie's Angels, Taking Woodstock) and composer Cliff Martinez (Drive, Contagion).

Now we’re talking! This was one of the few R-rated movies my parents let me see long before I turned 17. Of course, soon I was sneaking into many R-rated movies before I reached that age. I’d buy a ticket to “Ghost,” and I ended up seeing Steven Seagal in “Marked For Death.” I guess my mom and dad thought that since I was watching all these movie review shows like “Siskel & Ebert” and “Sneak Previews” among others, and that I had seen the trailer for this particular film numerous times on the Movietime Channel (long before it turned into E! Entertainment Television), the damage to my fragile little mind had already been done. Then again, it’s not like they were exposing my brother and I to “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.” That would have scarred us for life!

So why would I choose “Bull Durham” as my all time favorite sports movie? When I first saw it on VHS, I was already getting pretty used to the Hollywood formula of the typical sports movie where the hero suffers a crushing defeat and has to build themselves back up to an audience-pleasing finish. Don’t get me wrong, I loved a lot of those crowd pleasing movies like “The Karate Kid” and “Rocky III” (hadn’t seen the first one yet). Back at that young age, I was more comfortable knowing how a movie would end, and I wanted them all to end the same way. It’s still that way with today’s generation of audiences who thrive on repetition in stories and of the good guys (or gals) beating the villains with the expected rush of excitement as we are led to believe that good will always triumph over evil. When you’re young, you have yet to learn that in reality the bad guys get away with a lot before anyone notices (especially if they have corporate and/or political connections).

With “Bull Durham” though, it forever changed the way I looked at sports movies in general. It didn’t always have to be about the training montages and the build up to that big game. Instead, it could be more about the reality of the game itself, and of the various personalities who inhabit it. Whether or not the characters get their big moment at the end, their victories and accomplishments were never about coming out on top or being the best. The real victory came from struggling through one important stage in your life and surviving it to get to the next sone; closing one chapter in your life and moving to the other.

Most baseball movies focus on the major leagues, but what makes “Bull Durham” especially unique is that it is really all about the minors. Writer/Director Ron Shelton based this film on his own experiences in the minor leagues which he played in for several years, and he shows it to be a much looser environment that appears to be far more fun and carefree. The baseball stadium may be smaller, but the connection between the players and the fans is more intimate and not engulfed in corporate greed or network contracts. Still, all those players see getting to the majors as their holy grail, the one thing they feel destined to get to at some point (they refer to it as “the show”). Sad thing is many of them will not make it.

“Bull Durham” focuses on three characters throughout: Crash “the player to be named later” Davis played by Kevin Costner, Ebby Calvin "Nuke" LaLoosh played by Tim Robbins, and Annie Savoy played by Susan Sarandon. LaLoosh is the star pitcher of the Durham Bulls and is about to make his professional debut. However, he ends up pitching the same way he makes love as Millie (the incredibly cute Jenny Robertson) points out:

“…all over the place.”

Hence, veteran catcher Crash Davis is brought onto the team to teach LaLoosh to control his pitching and get him prepped for “the show” which everyone believes he is destined for. During this time, the two of them will meet up with the high priestess of baseball, Annie Savoy. Her church is the one of baseball, and she hooks with one guy a season to help them with their playing and to expand their mind. This player also gets to share her bed with her, and considering just how amazingly hot Sarandon is in this role, it does look foolish to even consider turning her down.

Like I said, “Bull Durham” is not about the big game, and that’s one of the many reasons this movie has stayed with me ever since I saw it on our old Zenith television all those years ago before the tube inside broke for good. At the age of 14, I may not have understood it all, but it was not a movie that just went in and out of my system like a McDonald’s Big Mac. It offers us a closer look into the world of baseball than we could have ever expected to see at that point in time. The intimate details of the minor leagues made it very unique among other films of its genre. You also get to learn the importance of the relationship between the pitcher and the catcher, and of how one had better not cross the other if he is looking for a good game.

The specific details are among the things that make the movie work for me immensely. Aside from the main players, the other team members are individualized to where you can tell one from the other. There’s the one player who swears by the bible and wants all his fellow teammates to follow in his righteous path. Then you have another player who uses a necklace with a cross to bless his baseball bat, and who later needs a live rooster to take the curse off his glove. Crash Davis also shows an alternative way to get a rainout which results in one of the movie’s more original and funnier moments. Not sure if he could get away with that in real life.

A lot of friends of mine from my high school days kept telling me about how much they hated Kevin Costner because it always seemed like he was playing himself in every role. That may be true, but he was a perfect fit for playing a veteran baseball player. You believed in Crash Davis because of how Costner portrayed him, and he also had the athletic ability to hit a ball right out of the park during filming (twice according to Shelton). In “Bull Durham,” Costner gives us a man that is knowledgeable of the majors and the minors, and through his eyes shows us the yearning he has to get back to “the show.” That’s right, he was in the majors for just over 20 days, and he recalls it as being the best days of his life. You can only imagine how much he is working to get back there, but it seems more like a mirage that gets further and further away from him as time marches on. His face spells out the long years of many road trips endured, and of the pain he still feels at being denied the chance to move up to the big leagues again.

As for Tim Robbins, I think this was the first movie he did that made me aware of who he was. I never did see “Howard The Duck” which he co-starred in, but that’s probably just as well. Looking back at his performance, it is clearer to me now that he had the toughest of all the roles in “Bull Durham.” Throughout the film, Tim has to take the “Nuke” LaLoosh from being a wild and crazy guy on and off the baseball to someone more mature to where you believe he is ready to enter the majors. Robbins makes the transition look seamless, and that ain’t ever easy. It was the first real indicator of the brilliant actor we have now come to see him as today. Since then, he has gone on to do very memorable work in films like “The Player,” “The Shawshank Redemption,” and “Mystic River” which finally netted him the Oscar we always expected him to get. Seeing him again in “Bull Durham” after all these years is a kick because he is so loose and fancy free. These days, he comes across as deadly serious. Maybe he should resurrect Bob Roberts…

But seriously, the most memorable performance in “Bull Durham” comes from the incredibly sexy Susan Sarandon as Annie Savoy. To say that she is sizzling hot remains an understatement a good two decades later as she captivates the audience in the same way she reels in Tim and Kevin. With this character, Ron Shelton gave us one of the most original female characters we have ever seen on the silver screen. She is a strong female, and Sarandon succeeds in making Annie anything but a slut. It may almost sound ridiculous to have a character believing in the “church of baseball” when you look at it on the page, but once Susan utters those words that start off this movie, you never doubt that she fully believes in it for a second.

The only thing more astonishing to me than Susan Sarandon in “Bull Durham” is the fact that she didn’t get an Oscar nomination for Best Actress! Even after twenty years (yes, it has been that long), it still feels like such an unforgivable sin. Granted, she went on to be nominated for an Academy Award several times (even for “The Client” of all movies), and she did finally win the Oscar for her work in “Dead Man Walking.” Still, I can’t believe that this same body of members failed to recognize her brilliant work here. This remains my favorite performance of hers for all times, and she has given a lot of great ones throughout a long career. She still looks pretty hot today, and she offered us one of the few good moments in the live action (and surprisingly boring) film version of “Speed Racer.”

But the real star of “Bull Durham” is truly Ron Shelton, and he must see a lot of Crash Davis in himself. As I said earlier, he spent several years in the minors but later retired when he realized that he was not gonna get to “the show.” Ever since this film, he has been the guy to go to for writing sports movies. You never get a “Rocky” like movie from Ron, and the characters he creates are so rich and complex and always have such fantastic dialogue streaming out of their mouths that make it hard to compare him to other writers. This great talent of his led him on to make “White Man Can’t Jump” where Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes were as brilliant at hustling on the basketball courts as they were at verbal sparring with each other and their opponents, to “Tin Cup” which gave us his take on the final victorious moment and had me thinking that Costner and him should make as many movies together as possible, and to “Cobb” with Tommy Lee Jones which may still be the definitive anti-sports biopic of all time.

Incidentally, the commentary track he does for the DVD remains one of my all time favorites. Throughout the movie, he strips away the mythology of many other baseball movies to give us an idea of what the game is really like. I also loved how he talked about the fight to get Tim Robbins cast in the movie even though the studio didn’t view him as a big enough star. The way they saw it, the audience would never believe that Susan Sarandon would fall for a guy like him. This leads him to immediately bring up that he is godfather to one of their sons. Ron also pays great respect to the other actors like the late Trey Wilson who is so good here as the coach of the team, and to Robert Wuhl whom he cast despite him giving the worst audition of any actor he had seen at that point in his life. Ron also lays bare how he loves making movies but how much he hates the business of it, and this is something I don’t think he has ever gotten over.

Very special thanks should be given also to Orion Pictures for being the only studio willing to make this movie. They are long since gone, the victim of a bankruptcy brought on by one flop too many. Still, they were a great home at the time for filmmakers like Woody Allen, Jonathan Demme, and Ron Shelton among others. Without them, would we ever have seen “Bull Durham” get made? How about “Robocop,” “Dances With Wolves,” “The Silence Of The Lambs,” or lord knows how many Woody Allen movies?

Ron Shelton may have never made it to the big leagues, but his experiences allowed him to give us “Bull Durham,” one of the funniest and most irresistibly sexy films of all time. I still see it as my all time favorite sports movie, and I don’t care how much you love “Rocky” or “Raging Bull.” Besides, where else will you find a movie about minor league baseball? Oh yeah, there’s “Major League: Back To The Minors,” but who’s in a hurry to see that???

**** out of ****

Written & Directed by: The Wachowski Brothers

Starring: Emile Hirsch, Matthew Fox, John Goodman, Susan Sarandon

Let me say at the start that this movie is not good. I admit that. However, I also have to admit that I kind of liked it. It is a live action Japanese comic book with elements of “Tron,” modern video games, bad kung fu, and oddly enough, an A-Ha music video. It is cheesy, corny, silly and annoying but at times it was also wonderful, fun, and the good kind of cheesy. The movie is seizure inducing not just because of the flashing lights but also because the whole picture is at war with itself.

Adapted from the Japanese animated show from the 1960’s, “Speed Racer” is the story of the Racer family. Pops makes race cars and his sons Rex and Speed drive them. After a family tragedy, Speed must live up to and surpass his brother Rex’s legacy, but in order to do that, he needs to grow up and face the injustices of the “real” world. Although the physics alone in this movie made the “real” world of Speed Racer far less real than even the average video game, it is still an intriguing world of 1950’s charm and old fashionedness behind all the glitz and bright shiny lights. Perhaps this is why this movie looks so much like one of the best video game adaptations I have ever seen. Now “Speed Racer” isn’t a video game (that I know of) but if it were, this movie would be a remarkable feat. As just a movie though, it is still pretty inventive and different.

The tone and comedy of the movie seem more suited for kids (except for a handful of very adult jokes), and that is both a strength and a weakness to the movie. For example, some of the funniest and most groan worthy moments come courtesy of Speed’s younger brother Spritle and his chimpanzee Chim-Chim. Now, having grown up on a steady diet of Chimp classics such as “Lancelot Link” (and to a lesser extent the Orangutan oeuvre of “Any Which Way but Loose” and the dreadful Tony Danza “classic” “Going Ape!” which seemed to be the only movie on HBO at one point in the 1980’s), I have always loved comedy bits with Monkeys and Apes. I can appreciate some cheap laughs from the chimp. However, there were also moments that were just preposterously stupid. One gag would make me giggle and the next one would make me want to leave the theatre.

For me the whole movie was like that. Parts I would just adore and at other times I would just totally loathe the movie. The art direction and color schemes were just spectacular. The casting and wardrobe were magnificent. However, then you have the races that were sometimes exhilarating and at other moments it gave you a “will this chase never end?” déjà vu that I haven’t experienced since the pod race sequence of Episode I of “Star Wars.” If he were alive, even H.B. Halicki would have argued that there were too many car chase sequences. At the same time, the races were almost more interesting than the actual plot.

The movie is all over the map, but ultimately it was an interesting experience. I don’t know if I would ever want to see it again, but I can say that it was inventive and I kind of dug it. I think few would get the cornball charm of this movie, but for the few who feel the way I do, the highlights might outweigh the movie’s detractions.