If Diary had its way, the EG Awards would feature a Best Film category. But would Greed, the new Steve Coogan film, be in with the chance of such a gong? Find out, with the official EG review
Greed ***
Torn from newspaper headlines in the wake of the high street crisis, and the high-profile collapse of one particular department store chain, Greed stars Steve Coogan as fashion retail mogul Sir Phi… sorry, Sir Richard McCreadie. He’s known as “Rich” or “Greedy” to his friends, and heralded as “the unacceptable face of capitalism” by his enemies.
Yes, this is a film taking not-so-subtle aim at the obscene wealth of the billionaire class.
McCreadie has all the clichéd trappings of opulence that one might expect: the luxury yacht; the island paradise home (“You can’t buy a view like that,” he says at one point, “Oh no, wait, I have”); the feckless children; the trophy girlfriend. But he also enjoys a surprisingly strong, if flexible, relationship with his Monaco-domiciled wife Samantha (Isla Fisher), a key player in his rise to power.
We join McCreadie at a stage in his life that might seem somewhat familiar – following the closure of one of his cornerstone chains, M&J, with huge debts, he has been hauled before a parliamentary select committee (glimpsed in entertaining flashbacks throughout) and both his reputation, and that of his remaining Monda brand, are in need of repair. To that end, he has hired Nick (David Mitchell, not flexing any new acting muscles) as a haplessly malleable biographer unlikely to ask any difficult questions, and set about throwing the 60th birthday party to end all 60th birthday parties, elaborately themed after his favourite movie, Gladiator.
The film’s narrative bounces between past and present, and is at its strongest when showing how the central character went from a young wheeler-dealer with a ruthless flair for negotiation (a stand-out performance from Jamie Blackley) to the head of a multibillion pound fashion empire, with the odd retail misstep along the way (after watching Greed you may never look at fuchsia the same way again).
Director Michael Winterbottom deserves praise for his attack on the exploitation of cheap labour in developing countries – predominantly women – and while the main names are fictionalised here, the script calls out real-life high street names on the issue, including H&M, Zara and M&S.
Further outrage is ensured in one stand-out sequence where the manner in which Richard and Samantha were able to acquire and exploit M&J – an outrageous, yet wholly legal process of debt-loading, asset stripping and tax avoidance – is succinctly explained to an incredulous Nick, with due attention being paid to the value of a strong property portfolio.
Unfortunately, the film loses its way in the modern-day scenes and the chaotic preparations for the party. Here, Coogan’s McCreadie veers far too close to Partridge territory, albeit this is an Alan with a fake tan, even more suspect teeth and an over-reliance on a word that rhymes with James Blunt (who, incidentally, enjoys the best of the film’s celebrity cameos). Worse still, time that could have been invested in showing the making of the monster is spent on story threads skewering the nonsense of glamour-obsessed reality TV and rather awkwardly highlighting the plight of migrants in Greece. Each could be a worthy subject for another film, but with only so much room to tackle them here, they end up serving as more of a distraction.
Overall, in comparison to Hollywood productions like The Wolf of Wall Street, The Big Short and Bombshell, or even satirical television series such as Veep, Winterbottom and Coogan’s work feels a bit broad, perhaps a little dated. One is left wondering what sharper, more incisive creators could have done with the material.
“The devil is in the retail” reads the clever slogan on the poster, but a little more focus on the detail could have made Greed very good indeed.
