The Laundromat *** (2019, Meryl Streep, Gary Oldman, Antonio Banderas, Sharon Stone)

Director Steven Soderbergh’s 2019 real-life drama The Laundromat stars Meryl Streep as Ellen Martin, whose husband (James Cromwell) is killed along with 20 others in a vacation boat accident. This prompts her to begin investigating a fake insurance policy, a trail that leads to a Panama City law firm founded by Jürgen Mossack (Gary Oldman) and Ramón Fonseca (Antonio Banderas), whose sharp practice ways with taxes and investments help the rich and powerful to prosper.

The Laundromat is more of a lecture than a film, but it is an interesting and enjoyable one, and it is a funny idea that the lecturers are the story’s bad guys, Jürgen Mossack (Gary Oldman) and Ramón Fonseca (Antonio Banderas).

Director Steven Soderbergh has in his sights nothing less than the world’s corrupt financial system, but he keeps his film amusing, entertaining and accessible, a difficult trick as it is basically a financial and political lecture that could very easily have been boring, complicated and obscure. He pulls this off like Michael Moore does in his film lectures, with a quite a bit of wit, style and brio.

And he turns in a smart, and smart-looking film, helped by enjoyable, quite broad and crowd-pleasing performances. Top-billed Streep is of course excellent value, relishing her role, and so are our guides Gary Oldman and Antonio Banderas, both entertaining, even if Oldman is rather ripe and hammy. It all works, and it works quite well.

The two main stars Streep and Oldman won Oscars for playing British Prime Ministers in The Iron Lady (2011), and Darkest Hour (2017). Both will no doubt be seeking  more awards here.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Movie Review

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