MONEY MONSTER

Poacher turned gatekeeper Jodie Foster’s fourth directorial effort is a messy mash-up of Jan de Bont’s Speed and Sydney Lumet’s Network. For dummies.

Money is probably an abstract concept for the 1% who have most of it, but for 99 percenter Kyle Budwell (Jack O’Connell), the lack of cash means that his unborn child will be born into a world without a future. When Budwell loses $60,000 of his life savings as a consequence of following a bad stock tip, he takes matters into his own hands. Lee Gates (George Clooney) is the bullish host of a vulgar Fox News-type stock market show called “Money Monster”. Budwell storms the Money Monster studio, sticks Gates in a bomb vest and parades him at gunpoint in front of the world. But Budwell doesn’t want his money back. He just wants someone somewhere to admit that something stinks.

Money Monster is a very silly movie dressed up as a smart “Occupy Wall Street” satire. A Golden Gate Bridge suspension of disbelief will be required to block out the numerous far-fetched stretches and unresolved issues in Alan Di Fiore and Jim Kouf’s script. As a director, Foster is competent but unremarkable, and lacks the savvy to hide the narrative cracks. Characters seem to switch attitude in the space of a single scene. One minute Clooney’s arrogant shock jock is a quivering mass of terror-induced jelly, the next he’s calmly helping out his hair-trigger captor. Once you start thinking about the plausibility of what’s happening on screen, Money Monster loses all credibility. However, Jack O’Connell is tremendous and Clooney’s surplus of charm allows him to sell this absurdity. Just about.

Money Monster is a dubious, mildly diverting mess. Just don’t think about it too much.