THE LAUNDROMAT

US, 2019, 95 minutes, Colour.
Meryl Streep, Gary Oldman, Antonio Banderas, James Cromwell, Robert Patrick, David Schwimmer, Jeffrey Wright, Sharon Stone, Nonso Anose, Matthias Schoonaerts, Rosalind Chao.
Directed by Steven Soderberg.

We are all familiar with the phrase money-laundering. While they have not thought of a specific name for the processes for this laundering, this interesting and entertaining critique gives a justification for referring to The Laundromat.

Several years earlier, there was an eruption in the business world – and in the political world – with the release of what were called The Panama Papers. They provided expose of extensive and worldwide wheeler-dealing, sham companies, interconnected fraud, bribery and the exploitation of investors, insurance-failure victims, all over the world.

Obviously, this is the kind of material that is fascinating in documentaries. However, writer S.Z..Burns (The Informant, The Report) and director, Steven Soderberg, have taken another route for an expose. They blend tragic moments with comic moments. They have a touch of stage and television vaudeville. They have melodramatic intrigue. They have some high drama with International authorities and investigations. They have vignettes about the exploiters as well as the victims. And they have Meryl Streep.

The film opens arresting live with a spangled-coated duo doing a kind of comic routine to camera, giving an introduction to some of the money exploitation themes. They are played entertainingly by Gary Oldman (with German accent) and Antonio Banderas. They recur during the film, living the high life, wealthy, no scruples, and revealed to be the two men behind the Panama company at the centre of the money-laundering. They make an entertaining duo – even as we are disgusted by their irresponsibility, refusal to accept any blame, justifying their swindles as if swindling was absolutely normal.

There is quite a contrast, on the other hand, with a story about a husband and wife (Meryl Streep and James Cromwell), going on a cruise, a freak wave capsising the boat, some deaths and casualties – leading to an exploration of the insurance industry, blame games, rationalisations for not paying, the discovery that companies were sold and resold in fact, the originals lost in shell companies.

Meryl is a determined investigator, taking her family to Las Vegas, thinking she had inherited an apartment only to find that there are more swindles. Discovering that companies based in the Caribbean, she ventures there, relentlessly pursuing her investigations (with a final expose that might surprise some in the audience but, those with an eagle eye for faces and recognition, will know what might be coming).

The chapters of the film are indicated as “Secrets� which are being explored. So, there are a series of interesting vignettes, one focusing on Jeffrey Wright as a Caribbean entrepreneur, escaping to the US, exposed as having two families, imprisoned. Rather more quietly, David Schwimmer appears as a neighbourhood lawyer who, to save money, has invested in small insurance companies only to find that he has been left stranded with his customers, with no capacity for investigating the sales, the sales, further sales…

And, some of the vignettes, go international, an African millionaire living the high life but getting tangled in the vengeance of his family. There is also a British businessman (Matthias Schoonaerts) going to China, doing deals, only to find himself caught by a dignified murdering member of the higher echelons (Rosalind Chao).

Steven Soderberg has made all kinds of interesting films and exposes for 30 years and has obviously enjoyed filming this complex story. Of course, it is left to the audience to do the moralising and be disgusted by the exploitation that they have watched – except, that at the end of the film, there is a somewhat intense communication to the audience about the morality, spoken by Meryl Streep. As a British reviewer said, most aptly, “when Meryl speechifies, we listen�.

1. The title? Money-laundering? World scale?

2. The work of the director, his interest in social issues, exposes?

3. Audience knowledge of the Panama Papers, the release, the information, exposing of companies in shell companies, international fraud, political implications?

4. A satiric comedy instead of a straightforward documentary? How effective for the audience, learning about the Panama Papers and their consequences? A way into this amoral world via humour and expose?

5. The range of settings, Panama, the US, upstate New York, Las Vegas, the Caribbean islands, China? The overall international impact?

6. The comic touches, the introduction of Mossak and Fonseca, German and Hispanic, Gary Oldman and Antonio Banderas, the comic routines, straight to camera, confiding in the audience, the lack of any moral perspective, money, descriptions of processes, companies, shell companies, fraud? The reappearance is on the double turn, like a television show? Seeing them at work in Panama, there are actual identities in real life, there fraud? The rest, carefree, denials of all responsibility? In prison – released? Smooth operators?

7. The contrast with New York State, Ellen and her husband, their marriage, the excitement of the boat cruise, the neighbours, ordinary people, the freak wave, the captain, capsising, Ellen and others trapped under the boat, getting free, the deaths?

8. The issue of insurance, Ellen and her investigations, learning about the company, the reselling of companies, the difficulties of tracing those responsible? The death of her husband, taking her daughter and grandchildren to Las Vegas, the hopes of the apartment, the window to remember her husband, the smooth operator and selling the apartment to Russians, Ellen and her discussed?

9. The captain of the ship, the accident, desperation, meeting with the insurer, his advice, the research, discovering the selling on of companies? The shell companies?

10. Ellen, discoveries about the Caribbean, her going to Florida, going to the islands, her search? The staff at Mossak Fonseca, the scapegoats, the woman getting promotion – looking suspiciously like Meryl Streep? Her intervention, whistleblowing? The final revelation?

11. The Caribbean, the wheeler dealer, his family, escaping to the United States, his other family waiting at the airport, his being arrested, imprisoned?

12. The African story, the extent of shell companies from the United States to Africa? The entrepreneur, his mansion, the pool, his daughter discovering her flatmate, the affair with her father, a threatening denunciation to her mother, her father trying to buy her off, giving her the management of the company? The arrival of the wife? Her concern? The flatmate and the revelations? The family explosion?

13. China, the extent of the frauds, the businessmen visiting China, going to the wealthy businesswoman, her polite manner, her assistant, the discussions, the hold over each other? The plan, the doctored drink, the businessman’s collapse? The woman going to the official meeting, the speeches about corruption, the head and his having to escape? The woman, arrested, imprisonment?

14. The extent of the money-laundering, audience amazement? The impact of the humour, the send ups of the spoof, Mossak Fonseca and their getting out of jail so quickly?

15. Meryl Streep, her strong moralising speech at the end – and the audience listening?