If it feels like you've been seeing a lot of Michael Keaton lately, that's because he happens to be everywhere at the moment.
The former Batman had a small role last year in "The Trial of the Chicago 7," recently starred in the action-thriller "The Protege" and will also be featured prominently in the Hulu series "Dopesick," which is set to premiere Oct. 13. Keaton also has two comic book movies coming out next year in "Morbius" and "The Flash," where he'll play Batman again for the first time since 1992's "Batman Returns."
Now, you can catch Keaton in the new Netflix film "Worth" as Ken Feinberg, a lawyer who took on the impossible task of figuring out how to properly compensate the families of Sept. 11 victims. The film was released Friday, about a week before the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks that killed almost 3,000.
This is the rare movie about 9/11 that barely covers the attacks themselves and instead focuses on the messy aftermath. It raises a a few important questions, mainly: How does one calculate the value of a life? How does one determine whose life holds more value than others?
How well it succeeds in exploring those hefty ideas is up for debate, but it's about as watchable as a philosophically dense film like this could possibly hope to be.
"Worth" is based on the actual events that led to the establishment of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund. Feinberg was appointed special master of the fund and went into it with a lawyer's mindset of how to allocate money to the victims' families based on certain factors. He receives a lot of opposition to his initial reasoning, most notably from Charles Wolf (Stanley Tucci), a victims advocate who lost his wife in the attacks on the World Trade Center.
As Feinberg's team, including colleague Camille Biros (Amy Ryan), begins interviewing the families, they realize that their methods are not taking into account the trauma these people have suffered and continue to experience daily. The story of one woman in particular, Karen Abate (Laura Benanti), moves Feinberg to soften his approach in an effort to do right by these families.
"Worth" at its core is a standard, talk-heavy drama about one man trying to overcome his own way of thinking and loads of external obstacles to give the survivors what they need. It splits its time between Feinberg and his firm, the political machinations that put extra pressure on his mission, and the ordinary people who just want something resembling justice for their loved ones.
Making Feinberg the center of this story and the avatar of this moral parable is a choice that may draw some scrutiny. Certain victims' stories are given time to breathe, and there are many scenes where director Sara Colangelo's camera is pointed directly at their faces as they recount their tragic tales. But one could argue that "Worth" is more about Feinberg's personal growth than the victims themselves.
It also wraps things up a bit too neatly, given the well-documented issues with the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund that have required it to be extended multiple times.
In its favor, the film moves at a brisk pace and generally doesn't try to overexplain how the political sausage gets made. It's an oddly entertaining watch, and "Worth" does at least pay lip service to the many scenarios plaguing families, including how Feinberg's compensation algorithm didn't take into account the lasting health costs of first responders who dug through the rubble at ground zero.
This film comes from Higher Ground Productions, a production company started by Barack and Michelle Obama that will also shoot the movie "Rustin" in Pittsburgh later this month. The Obamas are clearly interested in weighty, politics-adjacent stories. The subject matter of "Worth" is certainly ripe for exploration, though again, doing it through Feinberg was a questionable decision.
One good decision was getting an actor of Keaton's caliber to take the part. Mildly distracting Boston accent aside, his version of Feinberg believes in the law and his tried-and-true techniques for coming up with the value of a human life. He does experience tangible growth throughout the film, and Keaton plays it subtly enough that it doesn't feel schlocky or contrived.
Ryan is solid as Feinberg's emotional anchor who reminds him who they're actually serving, while Tucci provides some levity as the fast-talking, confident Wolf who knows Feinberg will try to do the right thing. Benanti gives the most powerful supporting performance as a grieving widow who wants to ensure her husband's heroics are honored.
The best way to sum up "Worth" is that it's a well-made but somewhat misguided effort to tell an important story. It's a fascinating film with excellent performances across the board. Experiencing it more as art than as the iron-clad truth will maximize your enjoyment of this movie.
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'WORTH'
2.5 stars (out of 4)
MPAA rating: PG-13 (for some strong language and thematic elements)
Running time: 1:58
Where to watch: Now streaming on Netflix
