This financial thriller is a deceptive revenge tale about a bank that gets its comeuppance. Specifically, the very nasty CEO of Centabank, Simon O'Reilly (LaPaglia) gets his, maybe. Deceptive, because although the entire time you're watching it, knowing it has crossed into the realm of wishful thinking and impossible coincidences from the start, you still find yourself drawn to the notion. Not so much to the premise that a genius math whiz could fuse chaos theory together with computer programming used for tracking investment stock market trends, then proceed to accurately predict that market. What grabs us instead is the hypothesis, which couldn't be more timely, that the arrogant movers and shakers who manipulate world wealth are indeed doing what we worst feared, and further, that smart, young talent is joining their ranks. It is not much of a leap to relish seeing these folks getting too big for their britches and somebody gunning for them.

Was anyone too surprised when recent real-life scandals brought down some very successful financial empires in the United States? Although these fictional events take place in late October 2002, the film was made in 2001, well before the scandals that broke this year. The Australian production seems to presage the demise of some major corporate players. O'Reilly is approached by mathematician par excellence Jim Doyle (David Wenham, The Two Towers) with a plan that makes the avaricious bank chief's mouth water. Doyle's scheme will let him know, with certainty, the slightest bit ahead of the pack, where the market is going. The plan stirs the greedy souls at the bank and builds to the suspenseful conclusion, keeping us on the edge in spite of ourselves.

O'Reilly is absolutely without redeeming qualities as he boldly flaunts his self-serving belief that he answers to the stockholders and owes nothing to the public. When asked by one of his inner circle about the distasteful solution to a pesky ethics problem, his primary command is "Do not tell me about it." We even get to see the little miscreant children he's raising as they run over the well-heeled feet of his wife and guests at a lavish cocktail party in his home. Several direct relics of 1987's Wall Street greed and Space Odyssey's technology god HAL, represented by the red electronic eye in the sealed war room come fast and furious to keep the focus on who the bad guys are, as if we needed reminding.

Along the way, Jim gets romantically involved with bank employee Michelle who may or may not be in cahoots with O'Reilly. The subplot about a struggling couple about to be foreclosed on, the death of their young son, and their law suit against the bank is more a loose cannon than a coherent piece of the tale. Although none of it holds up under a lot of scrutiny, this film gets the mood just right, half the battle for any movie. Written and directed by Robert Connolly, the screenplay doesn't concern itself with details like consequences for the big bank's many innocent employees; he just takes us along for the ride. A real-life financial planning commercial currently airing contends "Remove the risk, and you can do anything." Maybe this movie is not so far-fetched after all.

Anthony LaPaglia: Simon O'Reilly	David Wenham: Jim Doyle
Directed by Robert Connelly