Movie Review - The Laundromat (2019)

This film is to the Panama Papers as The Big Short (2015) was to the 2008 financial crisis. If one isn't aware of what the Panama Papers are, the Panama Papers are millions of documents that were leaked from the law firm Mossack Fonseca in 2015. The documents detail how people were committing fraud and tax evasion, as well as other illegal tactics to get away with millions and millions of dollars. The Big Short did a fairly good job of explaining that 2008 financial crisis in a narrative form and comedic fashion so that the average and possibly uninformed movie-goer could understand what happened and the dynamics of the personalities involved, as well as what was at stake. This film, written by Scott Z. Burns and directed by Steven Soderbergh, is also doing a fairly good job of explaining the Panama Papers in a similar way. However, Adam McKay directed The Big Short and took a more objective or third-person perspective with occasional second-person scenes. Soderbergh, on the other hand, is mostly second-person here and his tone can come across as more condescending than informative and engaging.

Gary Oldman (Darkest Hour and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) stars as Jürgen Mossack, a German who is one of the co-founders of the law firm, Mossack Fonseca. We don't learn that much about him or his background. All we learn is that he has this law firm that is set up in Panama, which is a Central American country. Antonio Banderas (The Mask of Zorro and Evita) co-stars as Ramón Fonseca, a man who was born in Panama who is the other co-founder of the law firm, Mossack Fonseca. We similarly learn nothing about him or his background. He's simply Jürgen's companion at the firm.

Both of them are basically the narrators of this story, and the way they narrate is by speaking directly into the camera, addressing the audience, which is similar to second-person point-of-view. Yet, neither Jürgen or Ramón think they did anything wrong, so their attitude is a condescending attitude, which infects the vibe of the entire movie. That attitude never feels like it's being satirical or done in a way of reflecting back on them negatively. Soderbergh probably does this purposefully because the true condemnation are against the loopholes in the law that allowed Mossack Fonseca to get away with its crimes. Soderbergh is more after the systemic problems, the bigger picture. These two individual criminals almost don't matter in Soderbergh's grand scheme and that is felt through this film, which I'm not sure is helpful in making this a successful narrative. If he's taking this tact, this story might have been better served as a documentary.

Meryl Streep (Mamma Mia! and The Devil Wears Prada) also stars as Ellen Martin, a retired woman with at least one adult daughter and two grandchildren. She's also a recent widow. When her long-time husband dies, she learns that there is a systemic problem with international implications that is allowing people to die without any compensation or justice for surviving families. She starts an investigation, which allows her to discover what shell companies are and how they're used to scam people and governments out of millions. Streep is great as this woman who starts off not knowing much about this stuff but through heartbreak and persistence becomes an expert in a way. She's not exactly Jessica Fletcher, although I wish she were and that this film was more like a detective story. Instead of Murder, She Wrote, it could be "Money Laundering, She Wrote."

There was a bit of controversy concerning Streep and what she does in this film. It may or may not constitute a spoiler, but, at the end of this film, it's revealed that Streep was not only playing the character of Ellen Martin, but she was also playing another character. One might not notice it, if one isn't looking for it, but Streep also plays a character named "Elena." Where the controversy lies is that Elena is a Latina person, which would mean that this would be an example of "brownface."

Brownface is when a person, typically a white person, imitates a person who is perceived as having brown-skin but who isn't African or African-American in their heritage or ethnicity. This includes pretending to be Latino, Middle Eastern, Native American, Polynesian and Southeast Asian. Brownface includes wearing makeup on one's face, changing one's hairstyle or wearing particular kinds of clothing. It's akin to blackface, which has been seen as racist by those who perpetrate it. Arguably, blackface is worse, given the history and experience of black people in the United States, going all the way back to slavery, but many still see brownface as offensive.

In previous works, Streep has portrayed multiple characters. In Angels in America (2003), Streep played multiple characters, including that of a Jewish man. There wasn't much backlash against her performance then. If there was, it never rose to the level the backlash here has got. However, the backlash here isn't that high either. There hasn't been a huge wave for her to apologize or to boycott her. There was some backlash about a musical called Falsettos that was criticized for having non-Jewish actors playing Jewish roles. An article in The Guardian said that dozens of people signed an open letter in protest to what was referred to as "Jewface." In that case, no Jewish person was in the cast. Here, it's not as if there aren't Latino persons in the cast.  There are both Latino and Hispanic people in the cast, including Banderas himself.

That in itself doesn't excuse Soderbergh or Streep's choice to have her play that character and commit brownface. 15 years ago, I wasn't as sensitive to these issues as I am today, so I didn't object to what Streep did in Angels in America. It was never my favorite part of that production, but I didn't see it in the way that I do this brownface incident. Even if a Latina had played the role of Elena instead of Streep, I would still see that character as an unnecessary diversion in this narrative, as well as a redundant one. Elena is a character that replaces another Latina named Mia Beltran, played by Brenda Zamora, who didn't need to be replaced in this narrative.

Her being replaced is in the service of a cheap joke, which this film didn't require. There are a bunch of darkly humorous jokes in this film, including the one which makes a widow out of Ellen, but the one involving Mia was just cheap and needlessly shocking. This film does have a series of cameos or brief appearances from well-known actors. The scenes involving those actors, including Jeffrey Wright, also from Angels in America, Sharon Stone, Will Forte and Matthias Schoenaerts are also sometimes cheap jokes. Some are funny though.

What we learn is Mossack Fonseca has many clients doing illegal or shady things. Soderbergh's film feels the need to follow a couple of them. These paths that Soderbergh follow take away from time that could be spent developing Jürgen and Ramón. A lot of it doesn't speak to the grander issue of the loopholes like the tax avoidance laws, which this film is really condemning, but they are amusing paths. The one that stands out the most is the one in Los Angeles about a black man named Charles, played by Nonso Anozie (Zoo and Game of Thrones).

The sequence involving him is entertaining, but it's emblematic of how all over the map this film is, literally. The ending of the film tries to tie everything together but it all feels too unwieldy to do so.

Rated R for language, some sexual content and disturbing images.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 36 mins.

Available on Netflix.