I found this movie severely disappointing. If fails to deliver much in the way of real drama (Nick Cage's Lord of War did a better job of dramatically pulling one into the seedy world of the arms dealing) and ultimately provides no insight into the primary character's ultimate motivations and personality.
The inflated IMDb rating for this movie has to be taken with the grain of salt that basically every IMDb movie gets a six and then gets mysteriously moved up or down by some formula they refuse to reveal.
Some reviewers on here have been willing to forgive the lack of dramatic appeal of this movie on the basis of its "truthiness", viewing it as a kind quasi-morality play. But for that angle to work, we need some sympathy/insight/reason to care about the central character played by Jonah Hill. This movie provides none. Jonah Hill and Miles Teller play their parts well enough, I suppose. However, if you are going to sacrifice drama for the "true story"/morality play line, you really need to give the audience some explanation of what it is that leads these character inevitably to their fate.
But this movie never even tries. You are left with nothing but questions about Efraim Diveroli and his motivations. He is left basically a cypher.
Which leads to the question-then what is the point of this dramatization of a "true life" story if lacks any drama and utlimately leaves us clueless about the central character. I'm afraid I can't answer that, and the makers never even seem to try.
The inflated IMDb rating for this movie has to be taken with the grain of salt that basically every IMDb movie gets a six and then gets mysteriously moved up or down by some formula they refuse to reveal.
Some reviewers on here have been willing to forgive the lack of dramatic appeal of this movie on the basis of its "truthiness", viewing it as a kind quasi-morality play. But for that angle to work, we need some sympathy/insight/reason to care about the central character played by Jonah Hill. This movie provides none. Jonah Hill and Miles Teller play their parts well enough, I suppose. However, if you are going to sacrifice drama for the "true story"/morality play line, you really need to give the audience some explanation of what it is that leads these character inevitably to their fate.
But this movie never even tries. You are left with nothing but questions about Efraim Diveroli and his motivations. He is left basically a cypher.
Which leads to the question-then what is the point of this dramatization of a "true life" story if lacks any drama and utlimately leaves us clueless about the central character. I'm afraid I can't answer that, and the makers never even seem to try.