Film

[REVIEW]

Subtle, but Rich

Michael Winterbottom’s Greed is a subdued assault on rapacious capitalism

Written by ROBERT HUNT

Greed Directed by Michael Winterbottom. Written by Michael Winterbottom and Sean Gray. Starring Steve Coogan, Isla Fisher, Shirley Henderson and David Mitchell. Opens Friday, March 6, at the Landmark Plaza Frontenac Cinema.

Despite having made more than  feature films, %ritish director 0ichael :interbottom is an elusiYe figure, wandering through genres with the same open-minded resolYe seen in so many of his characters. +e’s made period films (Jude, The Claim, war moYies (Welcome to Sarajevo, arthouse porno (9 Songs, pop biographies (24 Hour Party People, political documentaries (The Shock Doctrine, The Emperor’s New Clothes, an inspired e[ploration of a barely filmable literary classic Tristram Shandy and, perhaps most notably, the comedyYerit« series The Trip, in which 6teYe &oogan and 5ob %rydon amble through (urope e[ploring fiYestar meals, celebrity impressions and their own inȵated images. ,n all of them, :interbottom is a personally inYested yet almost passiYe obserYer, a polymathic chameleon taNing notes and Muggling ideas. Greed, :interbottom’s seYenth film with &oogan, is a dry, strangely uneYen satire, a film so determinedly understated that much of its comic points are deliYered almost subliminally. &oogan plays 6ir 5ichard 0c&readie, a billionaire fashion mogul described as Ȋa selfmade man who worships his creator.ȋ 7he character is loosely based on 6ir 3hilip *reen, a %ritish businessman notorious for boorish behaYior, a string of banNruptcies and accusations of se[ual assault. 0c&readie’s life of priYilege and

Steve Coogan is an abrasive billionaire in Greed. | SONY PICTURES CLASSICS

Greed is a dry, strangely uneven satire, a film so determinedly understated that much of its comic points are delivered almost subliminally.

aYarice is presented in ȵashbacNs as he prepares for his 60th birthday party, an opulent orgy of self indulgence on a *reeN ,sland, complete with celebrity guests or their looNaliNes and reenactments of scenes from Gladiator. $lso in tow are his family, e[wife, a battalion of serYants and Nitchen staff, his reluctant and slightly guiltridden biographer played with comic awNwardness by comedian 'aYid 0itchell, and, to his great chagrin, a camp of 6yrian refugees on the adMacent public beach. Ȋ,t’s not me,ȋ he insists when he tries to get them remoYed. Ȋ,t’s my guests. 6ome of them are Yery superficial.ȋ Though Greed is loaded ȃ perhaps eYen oYerloaded ȃ with subplots and secondary characters employees at 0c&readie’s $sian factories, a lion handler, a reality show crew, the film is almost too subdued for its own good. &oogan is wonderfully appalling ȃ he can play repugnantly arrogant creatures liNe this in his sleep ȃ but much of the humor is shaped in the offhanded style of The Trip series. 7here’s an awful lot going on, but much of it seems to be passing by in the bacNground. :e see 0c&readie’s unremittingly awful behaYior, but eYerything else becomes a blur.

%ut somehow, it worNs, mostly, and more in retrospect than while you’re actually watching it. $fter a genuinely shocNing plot twist Yery close to the end, :interbottom starts to pull the disparate plot lines and narratiYe debris together. $lthough &oogan’s character is broad and abrasiYe, :interbottom’s ultimate goal is more subtle, a satirical assault on unbridled capitalism, softly spoNen. Greed is in some ways an e[ercise in misdirection, a brash cartoon with a hidden argument in the manner of $dam 0c.ay’s politicized comedies (think The Other Guys rather than Vice. ,t’s easy to laugh at the crass e[traYagances of the selfish class as they light cigars with hundreddollar bills or sit in executive mansions assembling their boards of toadies, but :interbottom looNs past that to remind us of the implications of their behavior. Greed makes a worthwhile point about our current era of economic piracy, eYen if it stumbles and meanders before getting it out. n

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