Blu-ray Movie Reviews

From the outside looking in, Robert Miller is living the American dream. He’s a Wall Street billionaire who lives a life of luxury, has a loving wife and family, and is financially set for life. Unfortunately for Miller, he’s living a lie, and the house of cards he’s built is about to come crashing down.

The man who landed himself on the cover of Forbes is in dire straits to sell his company to an unsuspecting buyer before some financial shenanigans come to light. To cover up his financial missteps, Miller had to borrow $400 million from a friend to help hide his investment losses, but he’s overdue on the repayment and his investor wants his cash back—now! To add insult to injury, Miller’s getting a little on the side from an emotionally stunted artist who gets her panties in a knot when he spends time with his wife and kids. To appease the mistress, he suggests a trip to one of his vacation homes in Upstate New York. But Robert falls asleep at the wheel and in the resulting accident, the girl ends up dead. Could life get any worse?

I love a good thriller, and this is one of the best I’ve seen in years. Gere’s portrayal of the sleazeball Wall Street insider is one of his best.

The video presentation is a mixed bag: Interior shots look much too soft and filtered with challenging shadow detail. Darker environments lack any depth with crushed blacks and limited contrast. Thankfully, exterior shots exhibit better detail and strong color saturation. The low-key DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack fits the material perfectly, with intelligible dialogue, restrained surround activity, and a well-rounded score from Cliff Martinez.

Supplements include an engaging feature commentary with writer/director Nicholas Jarecki in which he explains the roots of the story and how he understands the financial workings of Wall Street so well. Other features include a behind-the-scenes look at the film, a character breakdown of Robert Miller, and 10 minutes of deleted scenes with optional commentary from Jarecki.

Wall Street has been in the news far too much over the past few years, and this fictional look at the inner workings of high finance is definitely worth your time on Blu-ray due to its solid acting and compelling story. Highly recommended.

Blu-Ray
Studio: Lionsgate, 2012
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Audio Format: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Length: 107 mins.
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Nicholas Jarecki
Starring: Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon, Tim Roth