He swindles his clients, cheats on his wife, and endangers his daughter. Uses son of one of his former clients (who is beholden to him) to get himself out of the shithole, in the process exposing him to a jail time. This guy is a total, all-weather moral bankrupt. He is also extremely foul mouthed, using the f word every time he utters a word. What a garbage....

What really makes this movie come to life for me is the moral ambiguity at its heart. Richard Gere's character continually justifies his sociopathic behaviour by insisting that the importance of his business deal comes before anything else. He is continually perplexed and frustrated by the seeming inability of other people to understand this. This self centred centred Assurance and the sense of entitlement it brings is at the core of the meltdown that took place in our economic system. A well observed and interesting take on our Society.

The banking and financial crash from 2008 has provided us with a number of movies to sink our teeth (or claws) into as we seek to understand what makes those high up in the financial industry tick. In recent years we have seen the sequel to Wall Street, bringing Gordon Gekko back from the 80's 'Greed is Good' culture, but with more interesting dramas like John Wells 'The Company Men' and J.C. Chandor's excellent 'Margin Call' the genre has been elevated above that of the mobile phones the size of a house brick, Filofaxes and slicked back hair. Richard Gere plays Robert Miller a hedge fund manager in the financial district of New York, and we soon find out his private life is much more complicated than flights in a private jet and signing off million dollar deals. Loyal wife Ellen (Sarandon) and daughter Brooke (Marling) who is trying to establish herself in her father's firm as heir apparent are seen to have the all the trappings of success in their lives. However we are then introduced to Millar's secrets, his mistress, art dealer Julie (Laetitia Casta) along with the fact he is chasing a signature from a rival CEO to buy his firm after he has fraudulently cooked the books to hide a disastrous transaction leaving him near broke. Millar exudes the confidence on the outside, but the cracks begin to show, and when the strain of potentially losing his mistress makes him decide to get away from the pressure, this leads to a tragic car accident leaving him with a crucial decision to make. In a corner Millar then calls on an old contact to help him out, cold and calculating and backed in a corner this is where we see why Millar has got to the top, he doesn't panic, the crisis brings out the worst in him as a person but this is survival mode. What he doesn't count on is Detective Bryer (Roth) investigating the accident, who instinctively knows what happened and will do anything to prove it. A really well paced and thoughtful thriller, with an excellent supporting cast, Roth perfect as the seemingly always slouching but knowing NYPD detective. Sarandon is excellent in every scene she appears but is criminally underused. However this is Gere's movie. His best role in years, he has all the confidence and grey haired charm, without being slimy, bringing another greedy money obsessed character to the screen, and despite this, with all that is happening to him, you are almost rooting for him. Almost.

Arbitrage's glue is Richard Gere's performance. Over the years, Gere has developed into a fine actor, putting behind him the woodenness evident in high-profile roles like An Officer and a Gentleman and Pretty Woman. No longer a sex symbol, Gere has sought out movies that challenge him to hone his craft, and Arbitrage is an example of this. He discovers the balance necessary to make Miller credible and interesting, sympathetic and despicable. That we're conflicted about whether we want the character to beat the charges or fall to them is ample evidence that Gere succeeds.By Arturo Montenora