Excellent, Without a doubt!!

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

A watchable if scarcely credible thriller set in the high-rolling financial world, centring on Richard Gere's patriarchal mega-rich New York financier looking to close one last deal on his 60th birthday, the sale of his family business, before retiring. But of course there are complications, firstly, he's borrowed over $400 million to plug a big hole in his business balance sheet and needs the company sale to the mysterious and elusive Mr Mayfield to go through to cover his tracks, but not before his daughter, an executive in the business, gets wind of the cover-up. Then there's his inevitable affair with a pretty young French art dealer with a cocaine habit and apparent attention deficit syndrome ready to bring matters to a head if he doesn't start putting her first. Then fate takes an unlikely hand as he falls asleep at the wheel while driving his lover to a love-nest, the resultant crash killing her outright in the process, whereupon he involves a young black ex-felon who owes him a favour and who agrees to again help cover up his tracks in the face of a determined police investigation led by Tim Roth as a disgruntled, stop-at-nothing detective.Stylishly directed in and around New York, it's well acted by its name cast, but ultimately it implodes with just too much dramatic incident in too little time reducing the believability of events. For instance, would the police really fake a vital piece of evidence just to nail this particular billionaire when there are clearly no other suspects to the girl's death? Do financiers like Gere's Robert Harris and his deliverer Mayfield really close business by agreeing written terms on the back of a restaurant menu.Still, regardless of the"sexing-up" of what is probably the very mundane and arcane world of high finance and hedge funds, all the various strands were pulled together nicely, plus you can take your pick of which famous family dynasty from which the writers drew inspiration for the Miller family.There was little here we've not seen lately in various TV mini-series where the action would have been spread over ten 50 minute episodes and telescoped here into a 100 minute movie probably overegged the pudding but nonetheless Gere makes you watch his character's increasingly desperate attempts at survival from beginning to end in an above average thriller.

While watching Nicholas Jarecki's "Arbitrage", I got the feeling that it was serving as an indictment of the Wall Street crowd as much as it was about a single person's mistake. Richard Gere's hedge fund manager is exactly the type of amoral person whose actions brought the world economy to ruin. As much as his personal mistake snowballs and causes further tragedy, it's trivial compared to what his business does. And then there's his entire life: he and his wife (Susan Sarandon) and daughter (Brit Marling) spend all their free time attending banquets and exchanging money with other rich snobs.It's a really interesting movie. Gere's character, like Gordon Gekko and Jordan Belfort, sees nothing questionable about his lifestyle or betraying someone to cover up his misdeed. And these types of people are still among us. Too big to jail indeed.I recommend the movie, although I thought that Susan Sarandon and Tim Roth were underused.

I wasn't expecting too much from 'Abitrage,' but I was pleasantly surprised, based on the cast. If it wasn't for the performance of (mainly) Richard Gere, this would have been a very formulaic thriller. At some parts, it still feels a little like an extended TV episode.As I said, Richard Gere carries this entire movie, playing a - partly - despicable character, who at the same time, we find we can root for. He doesn't make the right choices throughout the movie but that's what keeps his character interesting and helps to let the movie move along, even during its slower moments. It's the sort of thriller where everything starts to go from bad to worse for its main character, when his lies and actions only get him in more and deeper problems and drags those close to him down, along with him.However, not all the characters are as good as Gere's - the story really under uses Susan Sarandon, who could had given the movie a whole other dimension and more depth. She does the best with what's given to her, but there could have been so much more for her to do. As is Tim Roth, who just plays a stereotypical New York detective. When he shows up you think he is going to play a big and important role for this movie but in fact there are large portions of the movie in which his character plays no role at all.I still really enjoyed this thriller and at times was even loving it. It's definitely a better than average genre attempt, despite still having a very standard and familiar type of premise and story in it. So in essence, nothing surprising but it's all still very well made and acted out by its impressive cast, which already is worth the price alone.http://thewrongtreemoviereviews.blogspot.co.uk/

I'm sure the comparison has been drawn before. But what if Edward from "Pretty Woman" had moved on in life? The fairy tale is over and work has consumed him. Not only him, but his family. Sarandon, is the aging beauty wife, dedicated to keeping their family together and her charitable work and Pilates. Similar to what Julia Roberts would've become. Last we heard, money was the central idea of how he obtained Roberts and thus would be his own downfall.This movie is gripping. Despite previous reviews of how "boring" it was. It's not. It's one of the few times where I started to identify with wealthy people and the web they get tangled in when the ability to do right is so clouded by more personal issues. And it's an amazing balance of emotions, that I was throughly impressed with. I feel the reason this was largely ignored during Oscar time, may've been an undercurrent of the financial disaster of the U.S.A. It seemed to give a pass to greed. Not that it ever excused his behavior, but it made understand that most of us see black and white. Yes, there is a right or wrong and you want Gere to do the right thing. But in the shadow of financial disaster for a lot of people, is the right thing also the wrong. This type of dynamic is SO wonderful, because it's missing in most movies these days. And refreshing to see characters (especially the talent in this movie) slowly go into their own demise. I LOVED this movie. A wonderful look into decisions we make under pressure.