 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
The Bet
|
 |
|
A story that American movies have almost always told
well concerns the drive for material success. From Come and Get It (1936) to Scarface (1983) and
beyond, the urge to climb the social ladder is conveyed in all its dimensions:
as greed for money, as longing for status and recognition, and as sexual
thrill.
It is only because American cinema identifies so completely
with this crusade – think of Martin Scorsese’s adoring depictions of well-dressed
gangsters or entrepreneurs on the rise – that it earns the right to ultimately
criticise such a money-loving system: the classic capitalist rise-and-fall tale
can become tragic or, in the case of the novel and films of American Psycho, grotesque. Movie-making
itself, whenever large sums of money are involved, becomes an allegory of this
process – hence sharpening the identification.
Australian films (like, in fact, many films from the
smaller nations) tend to fare rather less well with this theme. The sexiness,
the urgency, the life-or-death stakes – none of this really comes across.
Instead, we get an earnest morality tale, the lesson of which is predictable
from the first frame.
The Bet, directed by actor Mark Lee (Gallipoli, 1981) and scripted by
Caroline Gerard, is in the tradition of Robert Connelly’s The Bank (2001)
and Three Dollars (2005). Rising
stockbroker Will (Matthew Newton) makes a bet with banker Angus (Aden Young):
who can make the most money in 90 days? The moment, very early on, when the
plot veers sharply away from the sinister Angus in order to concentrate on the
naïve Will, is enough to make us suspect that crucial manipulations are
occurring between scenes and off-screen.
The film boasts some excellent dramatic highpoints – a
scene where Angus dumps his girlfriend Lila (Peta Sergeant) in public is
chilling – but it has problems making the high-finance milieu believable. The
low-budget spectacle of actors in slick suits sweating over computers as they
cry “Buy!” or “Sell!” and furiously snap their mobile phones on and off, does
not exactly cut it. The central sex scene between Will and Tory (Sibylla Budd)
is clumsy (she keeps her bra on, he keeps his watch on). And the film’s coy,
evasive references to real-life cases of insider trading will hardly have the
big corporations quaking in their boots.
The Bet is Lee’s sole venture into
directing features.
© Adrian Martin September 2007 |
