885. Rogue Trader (1999)

Starring: Ewan McGregor, Anna Friel, Yves Beneyton

Director: James Dearden

Running Time: 101 mins

Rogue Trader is a British film about the true story of investment broker Nick Leeson, whose maverick methods in Singapore singlehandedly bankrupted one of the most prestigious British banks in history.

Now, the story of Nick Leeson is actually quite an interesting one, however this film doesn’t really do it justice. Ewan McGregor gives quite a dull performance, the whole thing isn’t really spelled out clearly, the pacing is awkward and the film does become very dragging and boring as it goes on.

Basically, this film is just a dull version of The Wolf Of Wall Street. It’s all about bending the rules to make as much money as possible, living on the edge and living life to the full, but you really don’t get a sense of that thrill in this film because it’s so boring and slow for the majority of the duration.

It seems to me as if Ewan McGregor, hot off his fame from Trainspotting, was just playing the exact same character but with a North London accent. He’s a young guy who wants to do what he wants even if it’s illegal, and as a result he gets his life turned completely upside down, however what McGregor doesn’t really seem to differentiate between is the fact that the character here is just so much smarter than the average guy that is presented in this film.

The problem is that there’s a lot of banking/investment mumbo-jumbo thrown around here, but it’s tough to really understand if you’re not a genius in the area. There are times when we get an explanation of what’s going on and what everything actually means in a scene, however for the majority of the film, it’s likely you’ll find yourself just confused about the real meaning and consequences of what this guy is doing.

Following on from that, this film is just too slow to be really exciting. The periods where everything goes wrong and suddenly this guy is on the run aren’t that interesting, because it never really picks up the pace from when it was in the slower, more technical parts of the story, and that meant that the only simple parts of the film were also pretty boring to watch.

Overall, this gets a 6.2, because it was just a pretty dull and boring attempt at turning a very dramatic and important story into something exciting and a lot like Trainspotting.