Movie Review: Dumb Money

 

Michael's Movie Grade: C

An okay underdog film. 

The reason why this film is still enjoyable despite its flaws is because it perfectly understands why people love underdog movies. People love to see those who seem like they have no shot at winning, beat those who have every advantage. This film has this in spades. Even if you (like me) have never paid attention to the stock market to root for these underdogs to win. You see the finical trouble these Davids have, and you see how the Goliaths don't play the game fair. This is not done in a subtle way at all, but it is certainly effective. Also helping this movie is that Paul Danno is simply wonderful in the main role, bringing a lot of charm and likability to the character. There are also some clever bits of filmmaking here. This includes some great use of real footage of news broadcasts and the climatic hearing. The film mixes the footage of the real person doing the interviewing with the actor playing the real-life person who was being interviewed. The effect is near perfect.

This film does have quite a few major flaws though. One is that there are so many characters, and the film keeps switching back and forth between them. Because of this we don't feel like we get to really know any of these characters. Instead, most of them either come off as bland stereotypes or just plain bland. This is also a movie that is just as much a comedy as it is a drama. The problem is most of the time the comedy isn't funny and often seems to think being crude and foul mouthed automatically makes it funny. 

This movie could have been much better but for what it is, it still works as an effective underdog story.