Richard Gere takes center stage as Robert Miller, a hedge fund giant on the verge of a huge professional and personal crash that will most certainly take down his devoted wife (Susan Sarandon) and loyal daughter (Brit Marling). Yet, intriguingly, what captures far more attention in writer-director Nicholas Jarecki’s film is the dynamic that emerges between the financial king and Jimmy Grant (Nate Parker), the young man Miller calls in his defining moment of crisis.

Watching Gere and Parker play off one another recalls the charged thrills between Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx in Collateral, but don’t expect the same action heroics here. Arbitrage, like Margin Call, illustrates how the spoils never trickle down. (R) Grade: B