Rogue Trader
UK/USA 1998
Reviewed by Ken Hollings
Synopsis
Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.
Nick Leeson, the son of a Watford plasterer, is sent to Indonesia by Barings, the City of London's oldest merchant bank, to clear up a complicated financial problem during the Far Eastern economic boom of the early 90s. He falls in love with Lisa, a young assistant. They marry and Nick is appointed manager of Barings' latest venture: trading in futures on the Singapore International Money Exchange. To minimise errors, Nick establishes a false account into which his losses can be transferred until he can recoup them later. He starts playing the Japanese money market, believing it will continue its rise. However, the Nikkei Index plunges sharply, and Leeson finds himself losing millions of dollars a day.
Unaware of the true situation, Barings takes his urgent requests for increasingly larger funds as a sign of high business volume and plunges deeply into debt, while hailing him as a financial wizard. Nick cracks under the strain and escapes to Indonesia with Lisa, only to discover that Barings has collapsed. Suddenly the focus of international media attention, Leeson is arrested at Frankfurt airport on a flight back to London and returned to Singapore, where he is charged with fraud, forgery and breach of trust. A closing title reveals that Nick and Lisa are now divorced, and that he has been diagnosed with cancer while in jail.
Review
Although based on Nick Leeson's own published account of how he managed to bring down an established banking house of over two centuries' standing in a matter of months, Rogue Trader fails to get beyond the sensational headlines which his exploits inspired at the time. As a box-office draw, Leeson's story looks good on paper, combining personal drama with some damning insights into the high-risk world of multi-national money markets. Unfortunately, it also lacks any real insight into Leeson himself. An unreadable mix of the banal and the inscrutable, Nick Leeson has continued to defy categorisation as either villain, victim or fool. His wryly enigmatic comment that, "Barings doesn't have a Watford branch," to describe his relationship with that venerable City institution is echoed here, but Dearden's film never fully expands on the class tension Leeson's words seem to imply.
Without a coherent narrative lead, it's difficult to get excited about strings of figures on computer screens, nor is it possible to create much dramatic tension out of a trading room full of men shouting and waving frantically in a state of permanent crisis. Ewan McGregor is likable enough as the rough diamond who can't stop playing against the odds, but Anna Friel's talents are completely wasted in a role which requires her to do little more than watch television and go shopping. Within a business community where forceful women are "ball-breakers" and less able males are "pussies", this is perhaps not surprising. However, the effects of Leeson's financial actions on their marriage remain unexplored, as do those of his arrest for drunkenly mooning young women in a Singapore bar.
Technically competent but formally unadventurous, Rogue Trader continually shies away from opening up its material to more imaginative treatment. A brief fantasy sequence has Leeson announcing how much money he has lost at a complacent dinner party for Barings' executives, provoking uncontrolled outbreaks of projectile vomiting. This comic high spot indicates just how far things could, and should, have been taken. But similar scenes depicting Nick and Lisa making love on a pile of share certificates, or Nick shouting market prices at a horde of clamouring news reporters as if he were still on the exchange floor, are too few and far between to have much lasting effect. Dearden, screenwriter of Fatal Attraction, has written, produced and directed a film which shows less reckless calculation and cold-blooded daring than its subject, which is a pity. With Leeson due for release from prison this summer, and McGregor slated to dominate cinema screens in The Phantom Menace, Rogue Trader might still generate some interest, but don't bank on it.
Credits
- Producers
- James Dearden
- Paul Raphael
- Janette Day
- Screenplay
- James Dearden
- Based on the book by
- Nick Leeson
- Edward Whitley
- Director of Photography
- Jean-François Robin
- Editor
- Catherine Creed
- Production Designer
- Alan MacDonald
- Music
- Richard Hartley
- ©Granada Film Limited
- Production Companies
- Granada and Newmarket Capital Group present a Granada Film/David Paradine production
- Executive Producers
- Sir David Frost
- Pippa Cross
- Claire Chapman
- Co-executive Producers
- William Tyrer
- Chris Ball
- Line Producer
- Alan J. Wands
- Head of Production
- Bill Shephard
- Production Co-ordinators
- Emma James
- Malaysian Unit:
- Ariff Hamzah
- Singapore Unit:
- Jasmine Charley
- Production Manager
- Malaysian Unit:
- Magen Appathurai
- Location Managers
- Bill Darby
- Malaysian Unit:
- Ramesh Appathurai
- Assistant Directors
- Max Keene
- Jon Williams
- Danny McGrath
- Malaysian Unit:
- Mahathir Tahir
- Singapore Unit:
- Cindy Heng
- Script Supervisor
- Julie Robinson
- Casting
- Director:
- Celestia Fox
- Singapore Unit, Local:
- Gaurav Kripalani
- Steadicam Operator
- Roger Tooley
- Supervising Art Director
- Christina Moore
- Art Director
- Paul Ghirardani
- Set Decorator
- Philippa Hart
- Storyboard/Scenic Artist
- Tomasina Smith
- Costume Designer
- Rachael Fleming
- Wardrobe Supervisor
- Stephen Noble
- Hair/Make-up Designer
- Jaquetta Levon
- Titles Design
- Frameline
- Opticals
- Cine Image
- Music Supervisor
- Iain Jones
- Music Mixer
- Phil Chapman
- Soundtrack
- "Can't Take My Eyes off You" by Bob Crewe, Bob Gaudio, performed by Andy Williams; "Good to Be Alive" by Charissa Saverio, Baylis, performed by DJ Rap; "Money (That's What I Want)" by Berry Gordy Jr, Janie Bradford, performed by Barrett Strong; "Release the Pressure" by Neil Barnes, Paul Daley, Daley, performed by Leftfield; "Open Up" by Neil Barnes, Paul Daley, John Lydon, performed by Leftfield; "Govinda", "Knight on the Town" by Crispian Mills, Kula Shaker, performed by Kula Shaker; "I've Got Something to Say" by Gerald Stringer, Reef, D. Greensmith, K. House, performed by Reef; "Rock the Casbah" by Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Nicky Headon, performed by The Clash; "Great Balls of Fire" by Jack Hammer, Otis Blackwell, performed by Jerry Lee Lewis; "Storm 3000" by Neil Barnes, Paul Daley, performed by Leftfield; "Semalam di cianjur" by Alvian, performed by Hetty Koes Endang; "Only You" by Macormack, Goldenberg, performed by Praise; "Song 2" by Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Dave Rowntree, Steven Alexander James, performed by Blur; "Liquid Cool" by Noko, Trevor Gray, Howard Gray, Gardner, performed by Apollo 440; extract from "The Magic Flute" by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
- Sound Mixer
- Jim Greenhorn
- Dubbing Mixer
- David Humphries
- Digital Sound Editors
- Kevin Brazier
- Stephen Griffiths
- ADR
- Editors:
- Kallis Shamaris
- Rick Dunford
- Foley
- Artists:
- John Fewell
- Julie Ankerson
- Mixer:
- Trevor Swanscott
- Opera Consultant
- Julian Hope
- Stunt Co-ordinator
- Mark Anthony Newman
- Cast
- Ewan McGregor
- Nick Leeson
- Anna Friel
- Lisa Leeson
- Yves Beneyton
- Pierre Beaumarchais
- Betsy Brantley
- Brenda Granger
- Caroline Langrishe
- Ash Lewis
- Nigel Lindsay
- Ron Baker
- Tim McInnerny
- Tony Hawes
- Irene Ng
- Bonnie Lee
- Lee Ross
- Danny Argyropoulos
- Simon Shepherd
- Peter Norris
- John Standing
- Peter Baring
- Pip Torrens
- Simon Jones
- Tom Wu
- George Seow
- Daniel York
- Henry Tan
- Joanna David
- Mrs Peter Baring
- Sarah Liew
- Siti
- Christian Solimeno
- Steve
- Lorna Pegler
- girlfriend in pub
- David Fahm
- boyfriend in pub
- Cecil Chang
- old custodian
- Michael Garner
- Alec Sims
- Sharon Duce
- Patsy Sims
- Karen Lim
- Singapore letting agent
- Jennifer Lim
- Kim Wong
- Alexis Denisof
- Fernando Gueller
- Danny Argyropoulos
- Peter Sakon Lee
- Rob 'Ches' Lemming
- Guy Boardman
- traders
- Gaurav Kripalani
- Aloysius
- Ivan Heng
- Singapore bartender
- Lim Kay Siu
- policeman
- Douglas Stark
- vicar
- Peter Quince
- Nick's father
- Gerald Chew
- doctor
- Selina Tan
- Wei Wei
- Mark Heenehan
- CNN reporter
- Richard Wood
- German policeman
- Certificate
- 15
- Distributor
- Pathé Distribution
- 9,125 feet
- 101 minutes 24 seconds
- Dolby digital
- In Colour