Susan Granger’s review of “The Laundromat” (Netflix)
What could be timelier than a whistleblower’s satirical expose of financial corruption? And it doesn’t matter whether you see it on Netflix or in a movie theater.
Introducing the complicated intricacies of money are German investment banker Jurgen Mossack (Gary Oldman) and Panamanian lawyer Ramon Fonsecca (Antonio Banderas), who founded the Panama City investment firm that bears their names. They serve as our unscrupulous, condescending hosts.
There’s Ellen Martin (Meryl Streep), who took an ill-fated sightseeing tour on Lake George, N.Y., with her husband (James Cromwell). When their boat capsizes, many drowned. Survivors soon discover that they’re never going to get the insurance payoff to which they are entitled.
Why? Because the boat’s insurance company in Houston was sold to re-insurance firm that was held in trust by a larger banking entity in Nevis. That Caribbean island is notorious for harboring hundreds of ‘shell’ companies,’ abstract businesses without offices or employees that are used for tax evasion, tax avoidance and anonymity.
Bizarrely, this flagrant financial maneuvering is legal, not only there but also in Delaware and several other states, plus many foreign countries.
Meanwhile, the daughter of a corrupt African billionaire (Nonso Anozie) discovers that he is having an affair with her college roommate. To avoid familial discord, he offers her a bribe: ownership of a $20 million corporation, which turns out to be yet another ‘shell’ company.
And a British money launderer (Matthias Schoenaerts) tries to persuade a Chinese client (Rosaline Chao) to negotiate a sleazy ‘deal’ with which she’s obviously uncomfortable.
Based on Jake Bernstein’s non-fiction book “Secrecy World: Inside the Panama Papers Investigation of Illicit Money Networks and the Global Elite, it’s adapted by Scott Z. Burns and director Steven Soderbergh (“Traffic”) who interweave the various vignettes into a convoluted, international anthology, reminiscent of Adam McKay’s “The Big Short” (2015).
FYI: Credited as Peter Andrews, Soderbergh also served as cinematographer and, using the pseudonym Mary Ann Bernard, as editor.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Laundromat” is a stylized, sardonic 6, preaching: “The meek are screwed.”
