This tight thriller about a magnate in over his head with his mistress, financial dealings, and family kept us engaged when we saw it 3 weeks ago. Star power is provided by Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon, Brit Marling, and Tim Roth in the main roles as the magnate Robert, his wife Ellen, his CFO daughter Brooke, and the detective trying to prove Robert committed one of his crimes, respectively. Gere (my favorites: his first major role Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977), An Officer and a Gentleman (1982), Breathless (1983), The Cotton Club (1984), of course Pretty Woman (1990), Dr T and the Women (2000), Unfaithful (2002), Chicago (2002), Bee Season (2005), The Hoax (2006), and I'm Not There. (2007), among others, proving he can do respectable, crazy, and combinations of the two) shows us Robert's desperation as he gets backed further into his corner. Sarandon (last in these pages in Jeff, Who Lives at Home) effortlessly plays a classy Ellen who would have every excuse to throw tantrums. Marling's (Sound of My Voice) Brooke gets madder at her father, but then she has more to lose. Tim Roth (at 51 he has 81 roles on his resume--my faves include Reservoir Dogs (1992), Pulp Fiction (1994) in which he played Honey-Bunny's Pumpkin, and Everyone Says I Love You (1996)) made me laugh as his character slouched around asking probing questions in a flawless New York accent (he is British).
Nicholas Jarecki wrote one other screenplay before this and makes his feature directing debut here. He has a 2014 movie on imdb with no details, so he is expected to be a star. The moody soundtrack by the prolific Cliff Martinez (Contagion and more) can be sampled on amazon's page, and then there are lots of songs, listed on imdb.
Rottentomatoes' critics weighed in at 85%, audiences at 71. Jack and I vote with the critics. This is throughly entertaining.
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