Starting
with his supporting role in “Looking For Mr. Goodbar” and continuing
with such movies as “An Officer And A Gentleman”, “Pretty Woman”,
“Unfaithful”, “Chicago” , just to mention a few, Richard Gere has been a
movie star for 35 years making more than 45 movies   He is one of the
very few actors who, at 63, could still be placed on magazine covers as
“The Sexist Man” of the year and even one of the fewer actors who could
play Robert Miller, the villain, in “Arbitrage”and having the audience,
against their better judgement, root for him. Playing his wife, Ellen,
is Susan Sarandon, as she did in the movie “Shall We Dance” , has been a
star for 42 years. Her resume includes such classics as “The Rocky
Horror Show”, “Atlantic City”, “Bill Durham”, “The Client”, “Thelma and
Louise” and her Academy Award winning role, “Dead Man Walking” among her
more than 75 movies.  When she is seen working the machines in her home
gym, in the film, you know she didn’t have a stand in and every woman
of her age would love to have a body like hers.

The
word arbitrage means the simultaneous buying and selling of an asset in
order to profit from a difference in price. Many people will see Robert
Miller, as a Bernie Madoff but Robert  seems to be smarter, more
devious, if not the devil himself.  He is celebrating his 60th birthday
with his family is surrounded by his wife, daughter Brooke, played by
Brit Marling, son Peter, played by Austin Lysy and his grandchildren.
After the party he leaves to go and see his mistress, Julie, (played by
Laetitia Casta) an artist who will be having a showing of her work.

Robert
is trying to sell his venture capital business while at the same time
cooking the books so he has to move fast. Unfortunately, for him, and
those who surround him, are put in jeopardy by an act that could bring
him and his empire toppling down. To go on any further with the story
would be giving ‘spoilers’ but “Arbitrage” now turns into a mystery with
Tim Roth playing a sort of stereotypical New York detective, Nate
Parker as Jimmy Grant, the son of a former driver for whom Robert did
many favors. Both business and criminal lawyers, plus a judge and a
grand jury, are brought in before conclusions, some surprising, some
left open, brings a very good movie to an end.

Richard
Gere certainly will be showing up on a lot of award lists and he is
backed by a solid cast of actors. From Billie Holiday singing a bit of
“There’ll Be Some Changes Made” to an stunning but impractical
chandelier in the Miller’s home, the production values are excellent.
Nicholas Jarecki directed and wrote the film with one to two unnecessary
shots along with a little confusion at points and forgetting a internal
bleeding that just disappears.

Just
watching Gere and Sarandon work their magic would make this movie worth
seeing but with the additional cast, the story, trying to figure out
how easily we are taken in, and root for an immoral man, makes it a must
see movie.