Everyday, fortunes are made and lost on the many stock markets around the world. That’s the focus of Rogue Trader, starring Ewan McGregor. This movie is severely bogged down by a couple of major problems: a focus on the less-exciting parts of stock exchange life and a marriage subplot that contributes nothing other than eating up screen time. While the premise is rich with promise, Rogue Trader is one of those films you can tally up under the heading “Major Disappointment.”
The movie based on the true story of Nick Leeson, an ambitious young British stock trader on the Singapore stock exchange. His employer: the 200 year-old British-owned Barrings Bank. Leeson appears to be creating millions in profits for Barrings, when in fact he is losing millions. When the smoke clears, Leeson costs Barrings the equivalent of more than $200 million, almost causing the bank to go under.
I was looking forward to Rogue Trader. With the exception of Wall Street, there haven’t been many movies that have taken us to the stock exchange trenches and shown the corporate jockeying that comes with it. Ewan McGregor (Trainspotting, Star Wars: Episode I) is one of today’s better actors. All seems promising, but, unfortunately, by the time the final credits roll, you’re likely to be disappointed.
The stock exchange floor is one the most stressful and frantic places on the planet. But director/screenwriter James Dearden chose, instead, to shift the film’s focus to computers – powerful and important players in high finance, but not exciting contributors to a movie. As a result, rather than creating tension in the furious trenches, the pacing slows to a near stop.
The other major problem of Rogue Trader is the enormous attention paid to Nick’s marriage. This adds nothing to the central plot and seems to be there only to justify the showing of a little skin. Dearden should have either made this sub-plot more relevant to the larger story, or devoted less screen time to it.
The final ten minutes of the film are very good, as it finally picks up pace and shows the potential this film had to be gripping. By then, however, it’s too late to save the movie, as it’s too firmly stuck in a rut of inconsistent pacing and a meandering plot.
