99 Homes: film review
In reading a recent article outlining the forced foreclosures of Bankwest commercial loans acquired by CBA, a strange parallel was drawn to the role that financial institutions played in the sub-prime mortgage crisis of America. Remember that? It triggered the GFC around the world. Add record prices well in excess of wages for the past 5 years across Sydney for simple residential abodes and Ramin Bahrani’s new film 99 Homes has an eery feeling of a storyline that we may well yet experience here in Australia outside of the big screen!
Michael Shannon (8 Mile, Revolutionary Road) is Rick Carver and the embodiment of the modern excess American dream. He plays nice to the cameras but deep down you sense that he’s ruthless and devoid of any human emotion throughout his pursuit for more money. He forecloses people’s homes on behalf of the banks and as such gets ahead on the back of other people’s failures. In contrast is Andrew Garfield (The Social Network) as Dennis Nash, a down on his luck, hard working handyman yet financially naive home owner who crosses paths with Carver when he, alongside his team of sheriffs and labourers, evict Nash and his family from their home.
Nash needs to earn money if he’s ever to buy back the family home and as luck would have it, an opportunity presents itself in the form of sleeping with the enemy. As Carver takes Nash under his wing and exposes him to the inner secrets of his trade the emotion or lack thereof of each character starts to steer the story towards an inevitable conclusive clash. You sense this is going to end bad yet still each scene continues to haunt the story and it’s viewers.
Why? Because the removal of families from homes is like an emotional wrecking ball. For the entire film this uneasiness sits over everything as we anticipate more drama and heartbreak caused by human inability. Or is it? At some point we start to see the truth behind these evictions as well as the necessary steps needed to reacquire your lost home. Nash does this with aplomb switching from someone who’s running out of luck on the path to foreclosure, to himself becoming a ruthless succeed at all costs home owner on par with Carver.
The acting is very good as it needs to be when dealing with the theme of financial failure. An otherwise dramatic plot borders on the action/thriller spectrum and the car park confrontation brings a snap back to reality as we realise our protagonist is someone that we shouldn’t be willing to succeed. The spaces between scenes work well to help build tension and allow us to form our own conclusions on owning a slice of the American Dream. Inspired by true events this isn’t a biography and it’s hard to gauge how much or how little was based on fact. It feels like a composite of stories scattered across a year’s paper. This hardly detracts from the ultimate outcome but it does leave us wanting to know the final final conclusion. You know. What happens next?
99 Homes open this Thursday.
Tony Roma