**Spoiler Alert**
Director: Ramin Bahrani/Starring: Michael Shannon, Andrew Garfield, Laura Dern, Clancy Brown and Tim Guinee
The real estate scandal that helped usher in the economic crisis in America from which we are still emerging has its culprits; all of whom will never be brought to trial or prosecuted. But the victims of said crisis are more numerous. Director Ramin Bahrani's new film; 99 Homes tells the story from the perspective of one such victim; Dennis Nash (an exceptional Andrew Garfield), who, with his mother Lynn (Laura Dern) and son Connor (Noah Lomax) find police at their door; demanding they vacate the premises. Accompanying the police is a real estate speculator named Rick Carver (a frightening Michael Shannon), who demands that Dennis and his family remove their belongings and remove themselves from the property. Carver and the police remain unmoved by the family's rage and outrage and turn a deaf ear to Dennis' pleas for more time to address the problem. Carver's callous disregard for the Nash family's problem tell us ejecting homeowners is merely business, nothing more. In an ironic development, Dennis finds himself making a deal with the devil after the Nash family is forced to take up lodgings in a motel. Unable to find work in construction, Dennis finds himself accepting Carver's offer for work after a crew refuses to clean up a house where former occupants contaminated the premises with human waste.
Dennis' position quickly evolves into the more unpalatable task of evicting homeowners. Noting Dennis' reluctance, Carver coldly lectures him about how "only winners are bailed out," and there are "only a few spaces on the ark," and offers advice about "not getting emotional about real estate."
Driven by an obsession to reclaim his family home and his desire to free his family from the unpleasant realities of motel life, Dennis involvement in Carver's real estate business grows. He quickly discovers how unsavory and unscrupulous the work can be. Carver has Dennis remove air-conditioning units and appliances from homes to decrease their value before purchasing them for a lower price. It is particularly painful to watch Dennis evict homeowners from their homes, where the tragic irony is hardly lost on him. Unlike Carver, Dennis finds his conscience and job duties clash as he sees people not unlike himself hopelessly defending their right to remain in their homes.
Shannon, who is almost peerless at playing morally-dubious sociopaths, establishes his character early on. Listening to Carver (aptly chosen name) wax cynical about his work and his cruelly dispassionate regard for those he ejects from homes, one can't help acknowledge that much of what he says also carries the stain of truth.
Though the Nash family's situation is greatly improved, Dennis refuses to tell his mother of his unholy union with his new boss.
As Carver hands Dennis ever bigger checks for his work, the sinister snares of success begin to erode his ethical reservations. He is enchanted by Carver's lush, spacious home and his boss' parties, where women and booze are bountiful.
When Lynn discovers Dennis has been working for Carver and has chosen to sacrifice their home for an upscale abode, she leaves town in disgust, with his son in tow
In time, Dennis becomes a bigger player in Carver's schemes until a major deal involving the local government becomes not only a seductively lucrative prospect but a means to more unethical and illicit behavior. The deal directly affects a homeowner of Dennis' acquaintance; who chooses to defend his home against the police and Carver after they arrive to evict him. Seeking to quell a violent situation, Dennis' conscience overcomes his greedy impulses; prompting him to divulge his deceptive role in the scheme.
The film has much to say about the greed at the core of the economic downturn and the opportunists who exploited the crisis for personal gain. Shannon's Carver reminded me of Jeremy Irons' John Tuld in 2011's Margin Call; another opportunist who sees only financial conquest in the country's economic free-fall. Where Tuld is slippery, charming and serpentine, Carver is blunt, brutal and merciless.
I think the film's singular attribute are its stars. Shannon is mesmerizing while Garfield, when free of the Spiderman costume, shows his excellent turn in The Social Network was no fluke. For what little time Laura Dern is onscreen, she proves to be quite affecting and real.
Though it seems unlikely Dennis would become Carver's henchman, it is easy to see how desperation might compromise one's ethics; transforming the oppressed into the oppressor.
Bahrani's film reminds us how government deregulation and unscrupulous lending practices by Fannie Mae and Freddi Mac left our economy in shambles. It is sobering to consider how accurate is Carver's assessment of the American capitalist system. Sometimes the devil is the greatest purveyor of truth. The stirring depiction of Carver's rapacious depredations makes 99 Homes a powerful and disquieting film.
