[yasr_overall_rating]
Two wealthy businessmen are about to get away with $5 million in ill-gotten money until their plans are revealed by an uninvited house guest.
Director Martin Rosete and writer Josep Ciutat’s action-thriller “Money,” is inconsequential. It is a film that you may let run in the background while you organize your monthly bills and accounts, pausing only to look up when you think something may be happening that hasn’t already been happening throughout the whole film. It’s light fodder for the split second you might philosophically consider “money” and its impact on your material life and moral implications on your soul. Most people know money can either be a plague or a blessing, and Rosete’s “Money,” shows us what we already know, but it tries to make things interesting by throwing in a mix of people with different socioeconomic backgrounds and upbringings where the audience can assume what it will with the information and attitudes presented by the characters. But none of the actors seem to take it too seriously, it’s as if they’re in on a joke and instead of becoming the character they are simply playing at it to their own amusement, which can make the film more interesting (intentionally or not).
“Money” is a tale of two friends who decide it’s a bright idea to sell big pharma trade secrets to the highest bidders. They get a $5 million payday and split it. It’s a secret they keep to themselves, or so they think. The film primarily takes place at a dinner party at Mark’s (Kellan Lutz) very modern home. The type of home that takes interest in sustainability as well as art. Airs of being “cultured” linger heavy in the air. This is mostly thanks to Mark’s wife, Sylvia (Jess Weixler), who takes pleasure in art and perceives herself making waves with her modest concerns for the health of people and the planet. She’s steeped in her own deeply ingrained moral authority. Sean (Jesse Williams), co-worker and co-conspirator to Mark, arrives with his current girlfriend, Christina (Lucia Guerrero) to the dinner party that will soon go awry.
Here enters John (Jamie Bamber). He’s an English con-man posing as a new neighbor and slithers his way into the small gathering thanks to Sylvia’s good nature and good manners. Shit hits the fan when John makes his intentions known while waving a gun and threatening the removal of digits. He knows about the money and he knows everything about Mark, Sean, Sylvia, and gathers at least the personality of Christina. The women are innocent, having no knowledge of the seedy business their men have been up to. It’s between John, Mark, and Sean.
The film goes on as a game of inciting paranoia amongst its players and creating ever-shifting alliances. Sean is a coked-out hot-headed brute. Christina is bitter. Mark is pathetic. And Sylvia, in all her “goodness” is continuously shocked and appalled. The bottom line is there will be winners and losers, and some will win more than others and some will go beyond losing. You find out just how much money really does count to some.
“Money” lacks vitality. The acting is subpar, but it may have been more the writing that drags it down. It is ultimately predictable to the point of comedy and devoid of a sharpness needed for a film of this sort. It’s all soft edges and melting lines, prepackaged and ready to be lumped into all the other “action-thrillers” found in the $5 bins at Wal-Mart.
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