Human Capital Review

[Westside Steve]

Human capital
Vertical entertainment
R                           97 min

Just for the record HUMAN CAPITAL is not a brand new movie, it’s one of those that fell through the cracks after its debut at the Toronto Film Festival. I guess the studios just couldn’t find a slot and frankly until recently there hasn’t been a brick-and-mortar theater open. Well in the Cleveland area the atlas theaters who decided to open albeit with some social distancing rules. Cinemark and Regal had planned to open but they chickened out. Besides with Hollywood not really producing anything new that’s kind of understandable. So between Atlas and the drive ins we’re left with a pretty meager selection but honestly it’s nice to sit down front of a big screen and pretend that the world doesn’t suck for a couple of hours. This is a strange and complicated film with different storylines weaving in and out until they come together for the finale. Based on the best-selling Thriller by Stephen Amidon it was also preceded by a movie version in 2013 as I recall.  This version stars a very respectable cast in Live Schreiber, (Drew) Marisa Tomei, (Carrie) Peter Sarsgaard (Quint) and Maya Hawke (Drew’s daughter Shannon). Part of the fun is watching the twists and turns and fold so I will only give you the basics. Drew is a reasonably successful real estate agent who used to have a serious gambling problem. Quint is a wealthy investor with a line on a sure-fire hedge fund with a minimum by end of $300,000 what should easily pay a return of 12. Sounds too good to be true? The two families kids go to school together and Drew, feeling a little bit intimidated tries to make himself seem like more of a big shot by offering to buy in. Well, that’s a complicated process. He lies to the bank about his income which adds the threat of bankruptcy to the threat of incarceration. That’s the main storyline. The others cover the gamut from relationships to self-esteem to an automobile accident, personal secrets and beyond. All I can tell you is if these other subplots become a little bit confusing just pay attention, it all comes together even though it might not be the way you guess.  You can also watch this one online but if you’re like me sitting in a theater with some expensive popcorn is a lot more fun. And a hell of a lot more fun than watching the mainstream media on TV.
A-
WSS