'Money Monster' review: The protagonists are the only face-savers in a crumbling plot

When you bring together Clooney and Roberts, with Foster as director, expectations are high but they fell well short of expectations.

'Money Monster' review: The protagonists are the only face-savers in a crumbling plot
Rating: **

Cast: Julia Roberts, George Clooney, Dominic West

Director: Jodie Foster



When you bring together Clooney and Roberts, with Foster in the director's chair, expectations are high. Well, put them to bed because this financial thriller is not a tour de force; it's barely a blip in the cinemascape.It's meant to be a popcorn thriller, but there is only so much suspension of belief a person can accord it. Then, it enters crazy town; in the case of this hostage drama, incompetence land -with both the characters onscreen and the director at large.

The script by Alan Di Fiore and Jim Kouf envisages a film wherein a blue collar worker Kyle Budwell (O'Connell) takes over financial pundit Len Gates's (Clooney) live show and threatens to blow up the host. Why, you ask? To make his point about money lost in a shady financial glitch over at Ibis, an investment firm run by resident evil, Walt Camby (West).
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Image: Money Monster (Twitter)

As the cops struggle to cobble together a half-baked disaster management plan, plucky director Patty Fenn (Roberts) coordinates the team's response while simultaneously cracking the case of the disappeared money. All in a day's work! Every choice made by the film's characters -the utterly incompetent police (who doesn't vet people before letting them interact with a potential killer?), to the careless kidnapper and the Stockholm Syndromed Gates -evokes a groan. Sure, you get a dancing Clooney, but is it worth it when you sit wondering throughout if there is anybody in the driver's seat of this debacle? It could all have been over in 10 minutes, tops.

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