L'Outsider (2016)
Directed by Christophe Barratier

Film Review

Recent scandals in the world of high finance are evidently inspiring a new strain of thriller in French cinema at the moment.  After Vincent Garenq's L'Enquête (2015), which lifted the lid on the Clearstream affair, L'Outsider offers a profile of the man who reputedly very nearly broke one of France's leading investment banks, Société Générale.  Adapted from Jérôme Kerviel's 2010 book L'Engrenage : mémoires d'un trader, the film naturally takes the side of Kerviel, who received a prison sentence after being convicted for fraudulent trading that resulted in his bank losing 4.9 million euros in 2008.  Unfortunately, the film's authors lacked the courage of their convictions (or just feared being dragged into the law-courts by SG) and so their attempts to point the finger in the direction of the bank and identify who exactly was to blame are pretty feeble.  Far from shedding much light on the affair, L'Outsider merely succeeds in adding further murk to an already murky intrigue.  

The film also suffers from being compared with Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), which tackles the same subject with far more flair, guts and authenticity.  The film that director Christophe Barratier (best known for his debut feature Les Choristes) serves up isn't even a pale imitation of Scorsese's film.  It is merely a tepid, dawdling thriller that fails spectacularly to arouse our interest in its protagonist - not surprisingly as he is so lacking in charisma and charm.  Arthur Dupont's portrayal of Jérôme Kerviel makes him out to be neither a hero nor a villain, just a characterless nonentity who allowed himself to become a cog in a machine that was bound to fail at some point, owing to poor regulation and inadequate controls within the bank.  Kerviel's own culpability is understandably glossed over (this is, after all, his point of view), but what is less easy to forgive is the film's failure to offer any clear pointers as to who exactly was at fault.  No wonder the film proved to be a spectacular flop at the French box office.

Film Synopsis

Jérôme Kerviel was just 23 when he was taken on by the French investment bank Société Générale in 2000.  At first, he was employed in the Middle Office, overseeing the accounts of traders operating on the trading floors.  In time, he became a trader himself and, encouraged by his superior Keller to make as much money as possible in the least time, he soon made his name by raking in a fortune through risky financial transactions.  But like any gambler, Kerviel's run of good fortune could not go on for ever.  Eight years after he joined the bank he brought it to the brink of ruin, by accumulating losses that ran into billions of euros.  Kerviel was just one of many rogue traders who very nearly brought about the collapse of the entire banking system in 2008.  But who was really to blame - Kerviel or the bank that allowed him to play roulette with its investors' money...?