‘Money Monster’ captures the mood of today, but it’s hard to take issues seriously

“Money Monster” is a thriller about a hostage-taking at a financial network that ends up being broadcast live across the country, and at the same time, a dramatic expose of the way Wall Street movers and shakers can crush the little guy. The movie stays reasonably tense throughout its “real-time,” 90-minute duration but its resolution is implausible enough to rob it of any real emotional or political power. And that’s a shame because its subject matter couldn’t be more relevant.

“Money Monster” is the name of a financial advice television program run by a clownish host dubbed the Wizard of Wall Street. He uses outlandish props, ridiculous dance routines, and punny movie clips to illustrate his particular take on the day’s money news. If that reminds you of the fatuous host of CNBC’s Mad Money, Jim Cramer, I’m sure it’s not unintentional.

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On this particular day, as the show takes to the air live, a young man pretending to be a delivery guy slips by security and walks straight onto the set where the host, played by George Clooney, is holding forth. Neither the host nor his producer played by Julia Roberts knows what’s going on at first.

For the next hour and a half, we watch as the take-charge producer and the cops try to negotiate with the aggrieved hostage-taker who’s armed not only with a gun but also a suicide vest he’s forced onto the TV host.

As the compelling drama plays itself out on live TV, eventually around the world, we quickly learn that the hostage-taker had just lost all his money ($60,000) the day before, when the stock of one particular investment firm (a fictional Ibis Clear Capital) mysteriously collapses, losing $800 million of its investors’ money. The gunman blames the TV host who had given the company a ringing endorsement.

While remaining true to its thriller roots, this movie also wants to raise serious questions about how our economic system really operates. And in that sense, it nicely captures the particular zeitgeist of 2016. But it’s hard to take seriously the issues it raises when the culmination of all this rage and anxiety is so simplistically resolved.

Thanks to well-timed revelations and confessions, the mystery of the financial collapse, once deemed impenetrable, is conveniently solved, all within the allotted 90 minutes. Unfortunately, it rings as false as the advice the Wizard of Wall Street doled out daily.