May 12--"Money Monster," director Jodie Foster's fourth feature, gets right to it. Popular cable TV personality and financial guru Lee Gates, played as a belligerent, self-loathing whirlwind by George Clooney, is preparing for his Manhattan-based show "Money Monster," plainly inspired by Jim Cramer's real-life "Mad Money." Lee's veteran producer Patty Fenn, portrayed by Julia Roberts as a wised-up pro under pressure, is about to scoot for a job at a rival station; she's had it with Lee's last-second script changes, the bullying charm, the scramble for ratings-friendly guests.
A high-flying hedge fund with the vaguely terrorizing name of IBIS Clear Capital -- Dominic West plays its elusive CEO -- is all over the news with sudden losses of nearly a billion dollars, due to a wonky trading algorithm and some sort of computer glitch. Result: Many, many unhappy stockholders. Lee's out for some good old-fashioned on-air shaming, since he touted IBIS as a can't-miss stock buy. The CEO's in a plane somewhere and can't be reached; the best Patty can do on short notice is the IBIS communications director (Caitriona Balfe of "Outlander").
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In short order "Money Monster" turns into a hijacking crisis. Disguised as a delivery man, a disgruntled and now broke investor (Jack O'Connell) sneaks onto the soundstage and onto the show itself. Brandishing a pistol, he holds Lee hostage, slaps an explosives-laden vest on him, and threatens to blow up the studio. Lee's set becomes a reality-TV exercise in panic, suspense and earnest investigative journalism, as Lee and Patty and their colleagues burrow, on a serious deadline, into the real story behind the hedge-fund fiasco.
It's all there in the trailer, which is to say: Far too much of the film's second and increasingly preposterous half is also in the trailer. Written by Alan DiFiore, Jim Kouf and Jamie Linden, the film turns out roughly 65 percent smart and 35 percent silly. I don't need my thrillers to behave like documentaries, but after a strong and confidently paced set-up, the hostage situation -- which requires a lot of cross-cutting between the studio and the NYPD's attempts to defuse and resolve that situation -- struggles to maintain momentum and credibility.
Part of the problem, I think, is O'Connell. The British actor impresses in the right roles ("Unbroken," the excellent " '71"), but here he's preoccupied with mastering a generalized outer-borough New York dialect. As written Kyle is less a person than an emblem of working-class resentments, feeding "Money Monster's" alternatively blunt and soft indictment of global capitalism as currently practiced.
All that said, "Money Monster" never quite messes up completely. Clooney provides the glue. Like director Foster, he has a genuine interest in making commercial movies that matter, at least a little bit -- movies that engage with questions of media hypocrisy and financial outrages. Foster's direction, aided by cinematographer Matthew Libatique's sharp, clean light, is the most fluid and well-considered of her career. The script is an asset, too. Until it becomes a mixed-bag liability.
Michael Phillips is a Tribune Newspapers critic.
mjphillips@tribpub.com
"Money Monster" -- 2.5 stars
MPAA rating: R (for language throughout, some sexuality and brief violence)
Running time: 1:38
Opens: Thursday evening
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