The Laundromat
Starring: Meryl Streep, Gary Oldman, Antonio Banderas
Directed by: Steven Soderbergh
Rated: R
A trip to do your laundry might be a lot more exciting than watching The Laundromat, a dry and condescending exploration of the Panama Papers scandal. The film is about a so-called law firm called “Mossack-Fonseca” which specialized in insurance fraud and money laundering, leading to the Panama Papers scandal of 2016.
Director Steven Soderbergh loves telling stories about money. Whether it’s Oceans Eleven, Logan Lucky, or Erin Brockovich, Soderbergh enjoys exploring how money entices and ultimately corrupts. The Laundromat is no exception to this theme, but it’s not even close to the caliber of his previous films. Although Soderbergh has been prominent in Hollywood for decades, The Laundromat blatantly rips off the directorial style of Adam McKay's recent sociopolitical films. As a viewer, many scenes feel like watching a cheap, made-for-TV version of The Big Short in all of the worst ways. Nothing about this film feels original or new, just a copy and paste formula that ultimately falls flat.
The biggest issue with The Laundromat is its plodding pace. It's only a 96-minute movie, yet it feels endless! Endless, I tell you! How can 96 minutes take so long? I sat through Once Upon a Time in Hollywood without checking the time once, but The Laundromat made me wonder if I was stuck in one of the Inception time loops. I may not understand the ins and outs of tax evasion, but I don't mind watching a film about it and learning. The problem is The Laundromat meanders in so many different directions that it’s difficult to get invested in anyone. The film boasts an impressive cast of stars including Meryl Streep, Antonio Banderas, Gary Oldman, Sharon Stone, and Jeffery Wright, but the plot is so scattered that it’s impossible to find character development anywhere.
Meryl Streep trying to figure out why she’s in this movie. Photo belongs to Netflix.
The entire film is spliced into chapters, so there isn’t one specific character the audience follows. However, the closest thing to the main character is Ellen Martin, played by Meryl Streep. She’s a recently widowed woman scammed out of her husband’s life insurance. Ellen is just trying to find out what’s going on with this fraudulent insurance company. Streep is entertaining, as per usual. There's almost always a guarantee she’ll provide top-notch acting. However, she takes on another role in the film as a Latina assistant working for the insurance agency that will raise eyebrows. It’s certainly a questionable casting choice to have her play a different ethnicity for such a random part. I know Meryl is one of the best, but there’s no need to have her portray a different ethnicity. There’s an eye-roll-inducing final monologue from Streep that is so condescending; it’s laughable. It’s as if Soderbergh didn’t think the viewer could reach any conclusions on their own from the film, so he hammers us over the head with the obvious message the movie has been preaching the whole runtime. Wow, thanks for letting me know that tax evasion= bad!
Antonio Banderas and Gary Oldman are also significant players throughout the film as Mossack and Fonseca. They’re both the owners of the law firm and the theatrical narrators, talking directly to the audience to explain how they ran their shady business. Banderas is quite entertaining in the role, finding a way to be both showy and comedic. Oldman, however, is ridiculously over-the-top. Speaking with a German accent that sounds painfully fake, it becomes difficult to listen to him talk.
The Laundromat is a dull, derivative, and downright ham-fisted look at the Panama Papers scandal. What a waste of a star-studded cast. Save your Netflix time for something else!
My Rating: 5/10