Money Monster Is 'Implausible,' Yet 'Realistic'

A desperate man who suffered from poor financial advice takes TV’s Wall Street whiz hostage live on the air in Money Monster, starring George Clooney and Julia Roberts. The flick is certainly timely, but is it worth your, well, money? Here's what critics are saying.

• Consider it a "solid investment of your time," writes Lou Lumenick at the New York Post. Clooney and Roberts, "in her juiciest role in years," are "stellar" in this "oasis of smart adult entertainment." Director Jodie Foster also "draws uniformly excellent performances from a top-notch supporting cast." The flick itself is "packed with more twists than a bag of pretzels, even if some of them strain credulity a bit."
• Once you accept the film's less-than-plausible plot lines and "uneven script," Money Monster "kicks into a high-energy, sometimes very funny, and occasionally legitimately tense thriller," writes Richard Roeper at the Chicago Sun-Times. Roberts—in "one of her best performances in recent years"—shares "remarkable chemistry" with Clooney, though they're rarely shown in the same room.

• Rafer Guzman has a very different take. Money Monster "is one of those C-grade thrillers that depends on implausible behavior, unlikely coincidences, and slow-moving cops to get by," he writes at Newsday. It "tries to channel populist anger but doesn't have an iota of substance. The dialogue sounds like a collection of trending hashtags—rigged system, government bailout, complicit media—but none of it addresses any real issue."
• It's "smarter than average pulp, but pulp nonetheless," writes Ann Hornaday at the Washington Post. The timely flick is "not quite the sophisticated drama the era deserves, but not the usual adrenaline-addled genre exercise, either." While the outlandish turns in plot are "disappointing," the film at times feels "crisply realistic." And it's "admittedly entertaining."

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