Wealthy young businessmen Mark Duden (Kellan Lutz, The Comeback) and best friend Sean (Jesse Williams, Grey’s Anatomy) seem to have it all—big houses, wife/girlfriend, and well-paying jobs at a major pharmaceutical company. They are living a cushy lifestyle, but money corrupts people, and the men partake in an illegal deal that yields them $5 million in cash. Mark immediately stashes his half of the money in his secret safe, and invites Sean over for dinner in order to give him his share. Mark’s wife Sylvia (Jess Weixler, The Son) knows nothing about the money, and just thinks the night is a usual get-together among friends.
Mark arrives with new girlfriend Christina (Lucía Guerrero, Chicago Fire), and Sean pulls him aside to hand over the briefcase containing his half of the money. As the couples are chatting over cocktails, the doorbell rings. A man named John (Jamie Bamber, Battlestar Galactica) is at the door, and he tells Sylvia that he is renting the house next door. He offers her a $1000 bottle of wine as a welcome gift. Being a good hostess, Sylvia asks if he’d like to join them for dinner. John quickly impresses the women—he talks about favorite novels and authors with Sylvia, and speaks Spanish/discusses his travels to Spain, Mexico and Puerto Rico with Christina (which makes Sean jealous and angry). However, the small-talk at the dinner table suddenly becomes hostile and insulting. John seems to know a lot about the other dinner guests, and refers to Mark and Sean as criminals. He pulls a gun and demands the money they stole. While the women look shocked, the guys play dumb, but John somehow knows the truth about what they did, and starts threatening to dismember Sean’s fingers if they don’t comply.
Things escalate quickly, and what follows is a psychological game of wits, greed and money. As new information surrounding the money comes to light, even the women start to question how to proceed. Relationships are tested as each member of the group tries to manipulate or take control of the situation for his or her own greedy purposes—each has their own reasons for wanting the money.
I have mixed feelings about this film. The premise and plot are really solid, but some of the execution and dialogue are a bit clunky, leaving a few plot holes and questions by the end. The film takes place in one location—the Duden home. While this is a spacious house, the filmmakers only utilize a few rooms, which helps keep things a little more claustrophobic, adding to the tension of the evolving hostage situation. The film keeps you guessing as the balance of power in the situation is constantly shifting as the hostage becomes the hostage-taker and vice-versa.
Jamie Bamber’s portrayal of the villainous-but-charming John is easily the highlight of the film. One minute he’s this sweet-talking, handsome guy, and the next he’s this ruthless man who will maim and kill if his demands are not met. The other performances are decent, but Bamber seems to be in a class of his own. While the other characters first appear to be one-dimensional stereotypes, they are fleshed out a bit more as the movie goes along. The Dudens are a seemingly-happy couple who are considering having a child, while Sean is a player who likes money and fast cars/women. He is a corrupting force on his friend Mark, and you wonder why they are still friends at this point as they are so very different. Christina doesn’t really know anyone in the group, and may just be with Sean for his money. We learn more about the backgrounds of these characters and the reasons why they want/need the money as the film proceeds. Meanwhile, the seemingly always-in-control John sits back and watches in joy as he manipulates these friends into turning on one another.
The main issue I had with this film is that some of the turns in the story just didn’t make sense. For example, if someone were to get a finger sliced off, they’d be screaming in pain and be slightly impaired. They would not calmly react like it was “merely a flesh wound”, and then proceed to use that same hand to repeatedly punch someone. Also, if they had already subdued the assailant, they would not worry about getting revenge, they would first seek medical attention to get that finger re-attached before it was too late! The other big thing that bothered me is how chummy and friendly some of the hostages get with their captor. Even when there’s no gun or threat present, the captors end up treating their hostage-taker like a friend, with seemingly no immediate pressure to try to escape the situation. It’s like they got instant Stockholm Syndrome. As charming as your captor might be at times, he’s still threatening to kill you, and you already saw him chop someone’s finger off!
That said, I still think the good outweighs shortcomings of the film, and the movie is still worth a look. Overall, the premise and situation is interesting and captivating at times, and Bamber’s performance really helps to carry the film.
The DVD disc comes packed in standard keepcase, and contains an insert with a code to redeem for an UltraViolet Digital HD copy of the film. There is no Blu-ray release of this title, so for the purposes of this review, I checked out the HD digital copy. The visual presentation looks fantastic, with a clean, detailed picture in both nighttime and daytime scenes. There is a noticeable uptick in quality between the Digital HD version and the DVD, so I’m really glad Fox included this HD option with the DVD. The audio track provides clear dialogue, but I never noticed any great use of the surround channel. The only DVD bonus features are an 11-minute behind-the-scenes featurette with the cast/creators, and the film’s trailer.
What’s Included:
Film: (1:24:30)
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DVD:
- 480p / Anamorphic Widescreen 2.39:1
- Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1
- Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French
- Closed Captioned
- Digital HD copy redeemable via Google Play or Vudu (UltraViolet)
Digital HD (Code May Not Be Valid After 2019):
Extras:
- Money: Behind The Scenes (11:18)
The cast and creators talk about the original short film, the script, the characters, casting, the shooting and post production process, and more. Includes behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with director Martin Rosete, writer Josep Ciutat, producer Atit Shah, editor Alex Lora, and actors Jess Weixler (“Sylvia”), Jesse Williams (“Sean”), Jamie Bamber (“John”), Kellan Lutz (“Mark”), and Lucia Guerrero (“Christina”). - Theatrical Trailer (2:02)
Final Thoughts:
Money has a really solid premise and plot, but some of the execution and dialogue is a bit clunky—some of the characters’ actions/reactions feel a bit too unrealistic given the circumstances they are in. The DVD includes an HD digital copy that looks and sounds great, and the disc contains a nice 11-minute behind-the-scenes featurette with the cast/creators. Renting the film first is probably suggested, but Jamie Bamber’s portrayal of the charming villain is fantastic, and makes this worth a look.
