Traders

This self-consciously hip and dark Irish thriller sports a wild premise that probably sounded good during coffeehouse banter between writers and producers but simply can't generate enough onscreen suspension of disbelief to consistently captivate the viewer. Owing plenty to the more complex social commentary found in 1999's Fight Club, directors Rachael Moriarty and Peter Murphy's postmodern winner-take-all gladiatorial tale features an interesting (if also illogical) socioeconomic twist. After a huge financial firm goes under in tough economic times, one laid-off employee named Vernon (John Bradley) comes up with a unique “trading” idea in which two desperate beings are hooked up via the “dark” web to meet at a remote location and fight to the death, with the winner walking away with the loser's life savings. Unfortunately, these mano a mano smackdowns feel forced and inauthentic: the sudden ease with which major players here begin squaring off just doesn't come across as an earned conceit, even considering the ratcheted-up post-apocalyptic economic doom atmosphere. Predictably, the fight scenes are gruesome gore-splattered set pieces, adhering to the 21st-century action-film rulebook of gratuitous video game-style violence taking precedence over character believability. As a morality tale, Traders never achieves much beyond a banal sort of “desperate times require desperate measures” critical stance on the increasingly normalized atmosphere of cutthroat competition in the modern workplace. Optional, at best. (M. Sandlin)