Arbitrage
Lionsgate | Release Date: September 14, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
73
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 35 Critic Reviews
Positive:
29
Mixed:
5
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertSep 12, 2012
Hitchcock called his most familiar subject "The Innocent Man Wrongly Accused." Jarecki pumps up the pressure here by giving us a Guilty Man Accurately Accused, and that's what makes the film so ingeniously involving. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanSep 5, 2012
The film doesn't turn its issues into a glorified essay, but it does use them to give the audience a vital emotional workout. Read full review
90
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriSep 13, 2012
Jarecki puts the veteran actor to brilliant use in the insanely gripping Arbitrage. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter TraversSep 13, 2012
It's instructive to note what a killer actor Richard Gere can be when a movie rises to his level. Arbitrage is such a movie, a sinfully entertaining look at the sins committed in the name of money. Read full review
83
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallSep 12, 2012
Arbitrage is a classy soap opera with a charismatic louse at its center, without "Margin Call" didactics, or the misplaced empathy of "The Company Men." Read full review
80
The GuardianDavid CoxMar 2, 2013
You've seen it all before, but lead Richard Gere drenches the proceedings in the old razzle-dazzle. Read full review
80
The New YorkerDavid DenbySep 19, 2012
Part thriller, part character study, Arbitrage is Nicholas Jarecki's first feature, and it moves swiftly and confidently, with many details that feel exactly right. [24 Sept. 2012, p.98]
80
NPRJeannette CatsoulisSep 14, 2012
Unfolding in somber tones and among hard surfaces, Arbitrage has the slickness of new bank notes and the confidence of expensive tailoring. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeySep 13, 2012
Writer-director Nicholas Jarecki squarely lands that punch, creating a tense and chilling horror story for financially fraught times. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternSep 13, 2012
"Just One More Chance," Billie Holiday implores on the soundtrack. The nice paradox of Arbitrage is that we're interested to see whether Robert gets one, even though he's the villain-in-chief of a suspense thriller whose plot turns on generalized scurrilousness. That's a tribute to Mr. Jarecki's smart writing, and to the take-no-prisoners performance of Mr. Gere. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzSep 13, 2012
Surprisingly entertaining, probably because it uses Wall Street shenanigans and schadenfreude as the backdrop to a crime drama. Read full review
80
TimeMary PolsSep 13, 2012
Gere is being talked about as an Oscar contender - he's never been nominated. January is a long time off yet, but his name is certainly worth putting on the long list. Read full review
80
Time OutJoshua RothkopfSep 11, 2012
Amazingly, Gere keeps it all together, via a kind of seething anti-rage that speaks reams to the character's survival instincts. Read full review
80
Village VoiceMichael AtkinsonSep 11, 2012
Slick and grown-up as Richard Gere himself, this intricate fiscal thriller takes a dead bead on extreme privilege. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeSep 5, 2012
Nothing about the plot is novel, but the film easily maintains a low simmer that picks up in the final act, as Miller has to fight to keep his sinking ship staffed. Read full review
80
VarietyPeter DebrugeSep 5, 2012
Between this cast and the conviction Jarecki brings to the table, the film feels incredibly accomplished for a first feature. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Geoff PevereSep 28, 2012
As many of the most memorable and darker thrillers have, Arbitrage plays with affinities in order to completely confuse the drawing of any clear lines between good and evil, criminal and executive, skilled pro and callous cad. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliSep 16, 2012
Arbitrage is actually a fairly straightforward thriller in the John Grisham vein. It doesn't demand that the viewer know the difference between a hedge fund and a hedgehog. Arbitrage also reminds us that thrillers do not have to be action-packed to generate tension. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadaySep 13, 2012
There are few cinematic pleasures as satisfying to behold as an actor in a role that fits him like a Savile Row suit. Richard Gere offers just such gratification in Arbitrage, a silky, sophisticated Wall Street thriller that finds the actor utterly in his prime, wearing his age and accumulated emotional wisdom with warmth, charisma and nonstop appeal. Read full review
75
USA TodayScott BowlesSep 13, 2012
Despite an abrupt ending and the worst title of the year, Arbitrage manages to leverage real tension from its veteran stars in one of Hollywood's first pedigreed films of the fall. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsSep 13, 2012
Arbitrage is never the nail-biting thriller that it could have been. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianShawn LevySep 13, 2012
More seriously, Jarecki never quite pierces the skin of this world, capturing its shiny and grimy surfaces but failing to immerse us in its flaws; too often it's like flipping through a magazine story on the lives of the rich and corrupt. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaSep 13, 2012
In the end, Arbitrage disappoints a bit. The writing isn't as sharp, or sophisticated, as it needs be. And the cynicism exhibited by Miller and the circle of traders and tycoons he moves in seeps into the fabric of the story itself. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsSep 13, 2012
Part "Law & Order" morality play, part "Wall Street" with a dash of the more recent and topically pertinent "Margin Call," Arbitrage hums along, complicating its narrative without tying itself in knots. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubNoel MurraySep 12, 2012
Between Gere matching wits with a police detective played by Tim Roth, and Gere having to explain himself to the steely Sarandon, Arbitrage is never dull. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineGlenn Heath Jr.Sep 9, 2012
If the film covers well-tread territory (a morally bankrupt player trying to prolong his own influence), it does so with pinpoint control of mood and theme. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenSep 13, 2012
There's a touch of Hitchcockian flavor to the Arbitrage's cat-and-mouse thrills, yet the film clearly announces that there's now a third gifted Jarecki brother (in addition to Eugene and Andrew) to contend with in the moviemaking business. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy BurrSep 13, 2012
Arbitrage is a breezy watch, with good performances that don't cut very deep and an eye for décor but little interest in what it's decorating. What's missing, really, is outrage, or a sense of the 99 percent. Read full review
63
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezSep 13, 2012
Even at his worst - and Robert does some awful things - the actor almost makes you root for him, hoping he'll get away with it. Read full review
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