Rating: R
Steven Soderbergh's latest film, for me, was an overall disappointment - but don't necessarily go by me, the film's subject matter is one I have little to no interest in and that may helped to make this one more than dry as dust to me. That said, with a stellar cast and Soderbergh behind the lens, I guess I was just expecting more from this tongue-in-cheek comedy-drama about money laundering ... that I actually found a bit depressing with its overall message that the bad guys usually win (even if it is the truth - and that's not a spoiler, btw). Meryl Streep stars as Ellen, a lady whose husband dies in a freak accident after which she discovers his insurance policy isn't worth the paper its printed on. She tries to trace it back to the company that insured him, but finds herself in a hugely complex web of fake corporations and fraudulent deals that - viewers learn - are a part of the great system of laws in this country that enable the rich to get richer by not paying taxes, while the poor get poorer and suffer the consequences of their actions. Antonio Banderas and Gary Oldman play two of the biggest con men attached to such schemes, and they narrate the film - speaking directly to the camera - in a tongue-in-cheek way of letting anyone watching know how the system "really" works, and how it's made them wealthier than God; again, not the most inspiring message to the average joe. The film is well-crafted and well-acted, but its education of how the system works - and how it works so much in favor of the rich and the criminally-inclined - is a downer of a message, true or not, that made the film less than enjoyable to sit through. 4/10 stars
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