The job portrayed in Worth would not typically be described as beautiful… it’s doing about creating the cold equations needed to determine the financial payout to people who have suffered from a disaster. But this movie challenges that idea and, I think, between the performances (led by Michael Keaton) and the direction, it is made beautiful. This is a very good film.

Worth is, indeed, about a lawyer who spends his time determining financial payouts. In this case, he’s taken on the job of determining the worth of the victims of the 9/11 attacks (so, you know, based on a true story). Keaton’s character wants to help and, as he says, determining worth is what he’s good at. He can’t fight a war, he can’t treat the injured, but he can help in the way he can help. And that’s beautiful.

I enjoyed the movie’s early focus on the process of determining how this payout system works. Seeing smart people do their jobs is interesting, made more so by the simple fact this movie had the audacity to make corporate lawyers into the protagonists (and the heroes, ultimately). It’s not something that “should” be done but they did it and it worked.

The acting from Keaton, Amy Ryan, and the other lawyers on the team was pretty great. We do have extended scenes of survivors telling their heart-breaking stories to these lawyers and you can see their professionalism waver over time. The emotional abuse they are taking is palpable and you want to say they aren’t the real victims… but it’s still pain and the actors deliver.

I guess my only complaint about the film is that it feels like it has a bit of a Hollywood ending. I’m guessing the last minute save storyline is probably true to life… but it came across as a bit emotionally manipulative and Hollywood. But it’s a minor complaint for a pretty remarkable movie.

This movie shouldn’t work. The guys who creates that cold equation over such a tragedy should not be the heroes of a movie. But they are. And it works.

Score: 90