Fun but disjointed comedy

GREED (15) Dir. Michael Winterbottom

Greed as they said in the ‘80s is good, and Greed the movie puts some much needed context around this business mantra.

This movie showsthe human cost of how business mogul-tycoons like Sir Richard ‘McGreedie’ McCreadie (Steve Coogan), make millions on the high-street whilst their garment manufacturers pay their workers a pittance for 12-hour shifts.

Somewhat based on real life people like Sir Philip Green, Director Michael Winterbottom allows Coogan to go super over-the-top with a caustic, hilarious exposé that tries to make serious points through the medium of comedy.

The plot is told mostly through the eyes of freelance biographer Nick (David ‘Peep Show’ Mitchell), whose background research into McCreadie uncovers a litany of horrors. From lives ruined, businesses asset-stripped and even deaths caused indirectly by his callous actions.

The timeline bounces back and forward from his private schoolboy days, his business career and the build-up to the climactic 60th Roman / Gladiatorthemed birthday extravaganza he is organising to prove ‘he’s still king of the high-street’. But will life finally catch up with the hateable McCreadie as celebrities begin to pull out of coming to his birthday bash on the Greek island of Mykonos, desperate Syrian refugees camp out on the beach outside the hotel and his bitter family members hatch their own nplans. Fate it seems wants to have a word with him. McCreadie however is oblivious even as his plywood amphitheatre construction falters and the real lion he’s hired is disinterested in performing.

Coogan is great in the lead, oozing nasty charisma and ripping through the script with scene-stealing sweary cusses – the scene with This Country’s Charlie Cooper as one of his longsuffering shop minions is pure class. But many of the jokes fall flat and the tone is questionable as it tries to mix the drama of his horrifically sharp business practices with the jovial pantomime villain persona McCreadie thrives on displaying.

If you’re a fan of Coogan’s Alan Partridge style of humour, GREED will certainly make you laugh but it doesn’t hit the heights of the that masterwork. Even as the cameos from Stephen Fry, Pixie Lott and the late Caroline Flack RIP help blur the line of reality and there is quality work from Isla Fisher as McCreadie’s trophy wife, but this is a movie that never quite adds up to the sum of its parts.

GREED is a fun, if oddly disjointed film.

★★★★