Worth

Starring Micheal Keaton (Birdman, Batman), Stanley Tucci (Big Night, The Hunger Games), and Amy Ryan (The Office, Gone Baby Gone). Written by Max Borenstein (Godzilla vs Kong). Directed by Sara Coangelo (The Kindergarten Teacher, Little Accidents).

Rated PG-13. Streaming on Netflix at time of publication.

SCREENPLAY: C+

The film is about a lawyer, Ken (played by Michael Keaton), who makes his dollars placing dollar values on human lives. His head and his heart accept a near impossible task - creating a fund that will disperse money to the families of those we lost on 9/11. Based on real life events, the story forces the lawyer - and us - to confront the difficulties in applying a capitalistic solution to a human tragedy.

It’s no spoiler that the film will test his ability to regard the families with the cool analytical head his job requires.The story contains echoes of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, the interviews with the deceased’s families taking the place of the three ghosts. 

These two stories differ in an important way, to Worth’s detriment. Scrooge’s tangling with the stories of the past and present (and future) transform him. What he wants in the beginning of the story is not what he wants at the end. Ken may have been affected by his experience, but he doesn’t seem transformed. Ken’s reckoning with these stories helps him achieve his goal, not change it. The beginning of this film set it up as a powerful change of character. The movie is indeed a powerful one, but not in the way it seems to promise at the outset.

ACTING: A-

Keaton is one of the greats, and he does fantastic work here. But the role is a tough one to play. When Ken speaks, he’s enthralling. He is a deeply intellectual person, spending much of his time wrestling  with decisions in silence. The story doesn’t always provide sufficient context for us to accurately infer whether he’s analyzing income disparities’ effect upon his formula or if he’s unshackling himself from the dehumanizing methods needed to complete his job.

Stanley Tucci’s performance as Charles contains a stillness most of us could never come close to achieving in real life. That ability fills his character with quiet power and bathes him in grace. 

When these two actors tangle, the film goes to a different level. It's electric, and one can’t help but want more of watching these two together.

Amy Ryan is a superb actor as well. Her talent begs to be used for something more than a sounding board for Ken’s growth.

CRAFT: B

Good directors know film is a visual medium, and “show don’t tell” is one of the oldest, most effective tactics in the book. Worth uses it beautifully in two magnificent scenes. Ken is riding a train when the towers are hit. That it takes him so long to realize what’s happening perfectly captures his inability to connect with people on a human level. The other conveys humanity at its rawest as Charles plods through the commonplace task of cleaning out the refrigerator. Both scenes are wordless, yet they contain an unforgettable impact.

THOSE INTERVIEWS: A

I didn’t have a stopwatch, but it feels like the survivors’ gut wrenching interviews take up most of the film’s time. Even more heartbreaking is the fact that many of them are real stories from real survivors. They become the movie’s story, a patchwork made up of horror and tragedy. They serve as a reminder that policy choices our government makes have real life and death consequences, not just abroad but right here.

FINAL COMMENTS:

Colangelo wanted to do a deep study of the concept of placing a dollar value on a human life - more of its morality than its method. While the film certainly spends much time meditating on that, I don’t believe it will be the film’s legacy. The interviews are what I will remember and take with me. 

As someone who was alive when this atrocity occured, I’ve heard countless stories of that day. No matter how many nor how often I hear them, the pain will never disappear. This film feels more like a memorial to the casualties (both the living and the remaining) than a philosophical, moral analysis of how the government dealt with them. It may not be the film Coangelo intended, but that doesn’t make it any less affecting or important.

FINAL GRADE: B

If you like Worth, consider checking out: Spotlight, United 93.