Rogue Trader

I spent twenty years working in the City of London and was actually working for Barings at time of the scandal. Naturally it shook the city, I will always remember the Monday morning, cutting through the press corps outside the building asking such idiot questions like 'Have you heard the news about Barings ?' But back to the film, it tells the story of Nick Leeson the man who broke Barings. He tells of all the problems he suffered with untrained staff, mistakes, and how he tried to cover for his staff. Nothing was ever his fault. This part of the film was pure fiction, mistakes always get made and the mistake Kim made at the start would not necessarily have resulted in her firing. Nick himself remains blameless in the film when what he should have been doing was telling his boss to hire some decent people. The fault with the Barings scandal of course lies with the management. They believed it because they wanted to. No dealer can make 20 million in a week unless he is gambling in excess of 2 billion or committing a fraud. A good film for those uninitiated in the way the financial world works but not totally accurate. I hear Nick Leeson is working for a football club in Ireland now. I harbour no grudges for the fact I didn't get my entire bonus that year or the fact ING made me redundant when they took Barings over !!!

This movie is slow and dull. The fact that you know how it ends makes it even worse: it seems like they're trying to build up the tension and let you think that maybe Nick'll see the error of his ways. But then you remember what really happened. The soundtrack made the movie even worse, if that's possible. Nothing exciting ever happens. I can't see any reason why anyone would ever want to watch this movie.

STAR RATING:*****Unmissable****Very Good***Okay**You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead *Avoid At All Costs Without wishing to slam the valiantly persistent British film industry,the best way to sum up one of their movies is like this:big , major story ,pumped up and gagging to be like an American one,fast club music swallowing virtually everything in the movie,and a relatively short,cheap pace. Maybe because it was made on Fox pictures rather than Film 4,Rogue Trader obtained a kind of greater more hollywood feel to it.Ewan McGregor,as ever,was pretty good,as was most of the rest of the cast,some of whom were just wasted and or plain uninvolved. And,Rogue Trader,being the infinetly unique movie it was,was the first movie to demonstrate a lifetime puzzle with me of when modern,techno dance music would combine with '60's music of sorts for an overall story (Andy Williams I Love You Baby and the car sequence springing to mind.) But,on the subject matter in the same league as the O.J. Simpson trial and Princess Diana's death in newsyears gone past,that's about all it did manage to accomplish.**

Having actually looked into the whole Barings situation as a Finance student at the time, I definitely went into this film with pre-concieved notions and ideas. I'd come out thinking nothing different really, as this was obviously a Nick Leeson ego boost as opposed to a film, which anyone should really have spotted by the fact that he wrote the screenplay! The film-makers glossed over the parts that made Leeson look bad, and only boosted his Rogue image, as if we were supposed to take pity on him in a way that he was a victim of the whole thing. Again this could only have reasonably been expected, but to be quite so blase and open about it was still a surprise. That's not to say this didn't have redeeming factors - Ewan McGregor was very good as Leeson and eminently convincable, as was Anna Friel as his wife Lisa. Coming out of the cinema, the initial thought is that there's already enough material for a sequel. Which I won't be seeing.

The film isn't bad, and if you at all interested in the case but know nothing about city trading then see it, if you do (unlike me) i'm sure you will be able to pick holes in it. The one thing that you are left at the end, is the injustice for all the blame to land on his shoulders, he was daft, but there were others. The sets are very good, dodgy boom mike holding, and very dodgy lines from Anna Friel, but she goes topless and so can be forgiven!

Where to start.... Okay firstly, unless you've been in hibernation the last few years you'll know the name Nick Leeson. The film follows Leeson through his days as a futures trader for Barings Bank (the oldest merchant bank in England) and his transfer to South-east Asia, through to the eventual collapse of said bank and Leeson's imprisonment. I'm not quite sure why 'Rogue Trader' was even made, either it's pro-Leeson and sees him as a courageous boss protecting his incompetent employees (yeah, right!) or the film merely tries to explain this particular corner of history. On both counts 'Rogue Trader' is left severely lacking, although McGregor tries valiantly, portraying Leeson as anything other than a spoilt child would seem impossible. The rest of the cast cannot however even be accused of trying to breath some life into this tepid affair. Friel appears disinterested (a feeling I felt all too often) as do Leeson's superiors. As much as I would like to promote this film, with its distinctly English cast, I'm afraid it's a lost hope. If you want I imagine you could spend a few hours trying to find some hidden meaning that would make the whole experience worthwhile, but you probably won't and who could blame you. Stay away unless you want your opinion of Ewan McGregor tainted and your view of Anna Friel confirmed!

An interesting foresight into the background to the Barings Bank collapse. The relationship between Leeson and his wife is also explored. Great pre-Star Wars role for Ewan McGregor, and Anna Friel more than holds her own. For those interested in the saga, it is a must-see.

Unlike compelling stories of high finance and crime in films like the Thomas Crown Affair and Rollover, Rogue Trader purports to be the true story of Nick Leeson, a stock trader whose speculation brought down Barings, England's oldest bank. McGregor portrays Leeson as a charmer white collar criminal who ended up sentenced to six years in a Chinese prison for insider trading and fraud. Diagnosed with cancer, Leeson wrote his memoirs and low and behold it became a film. Always a solid performer, Ewan McGregor plays the self-absorbed, arrogant Leeson with his usual competence and energy. Anna Friel is his in the dark wife who yearns to be pregnant but can't interest her husband away from the trading floor. This is story of greed, larceny, and speculation on a grand scale. The film was never released in theaters but went straight to Showtime and has now been released for home sale. Skip it and rent it. Good acting, good story, but not a very compelling item for collectors of McGregor's work.

In bringing a true story to the screen, directors are always hampered by the inevitable lack of suspense. We all know the plot of Rogue Trader, working class whiz kid brings down venerable merchant bank, gets caught & goes to prison. Fair enough. But where the director totally failed in this film is to generate any dynamism or energy in what should have been a frenetic, fast paced account of the collapse of Barings Bank. Rogue Trader has about as much zing as soggy custard. It's so flat, I was crying out for some passion, and I don't mean the abysmal scenes of Ewan MacGregor and Anna Friel cavorting clumsily on a heap of bearer bonds. MacGregor is convincing as Leeson, but the rest of the cast are just laughable. Special mention goes to the appalling efforts of Tim McInnerny as Tony Hawes and Nigel Lindsay as Ron Baker, and the entire Asian cast who were exceptionally wooden. You always know a film is in trouble when a character explains the technicalities of the plot to another character solely for the audience's benefit. Witness MacGregor's embarrassing explanation of the "five eights" account to his colleague. And trying to teach the complicated nuances of futures trading to his wide-eyed staff in a Delifrance? Please! Rogue Trader had potential. Captivating real-life plot, strong lead actor. But the film is a stinker, awash with cliches and cardboard cut-out acting. What a shame. Ewan MacGregor, you can do better than this!

This film has various problems. One is that it really tells us nothing of note that we did not know from newspaper reports at the time. At least it was hot news then. By the time the film came out, it was old hat, and of course, we spend the whole film waiting for the crash and Leeson's arrest. There is no suspense and no plot of any interest. The film might have made up for this if the characters had been interesting, or if they had somehow thrown light on the meaning of life. They don't. Being based on Leeson's own book means that everything is seen from his superficial angle. What really drove him, how he really got into this mess, we never really feel. McGregor does his best, mainly using facial expressions to gloss over what the script does not provide. Anna Friel has a thankless role as his cardboard cutout wife. All the Barings characters are even more two-dimensional. When the real people are still around, I suppose you have to be very careful not to expose yourself to lawsuits. The result is blandness. What's the point of this film?