After the 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre and Pentagon the U.S. Government appointed mediator Ken Feinberg (Michael Keaton) to run the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund. The goal he was given was to achieve an 80% sign up to the fund where victims families agreed to the settlement figure waiving any further rights to sue for their loss. 

Feinberg wanted the job when everyone else saw it as a no win situation. He saw it as a way to serve his country and persuaded the Republican administration to give him the role as a no lose situation. They either looked good by finding the right candidate from across the aisle or a Democrat screwed it up. 

The story covers a few angles. Firstly there is Feinberg who starts out as a number cruncher who wants to stay objective by not getting involved in the personal stories. Secondly there is Charles Wolf (Stanley Tucci), a man who lost his wife in the towers and becomes somewhat of a leader for the ‘prospective claimants’. Wolf argues that Feinberg should use his executive power to help the individuals in the same way the government does to help huge corporations. Then there are the personal stories surrounding a fireman’s widow (Laura Benanti) who finds her husband has a secret family and a gay man (Andy Schneeflock) who was not married to his partner and is therefore not entitled to anything. 

The issue with the film though is two fold and they both seem rather ironic given the subject matter. My biggest issue was the rather crass ‘against the clock’ nature of Feinberg’s task to get an 80% sign up rate. Whilst the next biggest problem is how impersonal the whole thing is. Given the film is meant to be tackling the sensitive issue of what life is worth and how we are all different and important it is framed as exactly that. The problem then is that it never actually wants to explain to us what the formula decided upon actually is. We are told that the payout is a minimum of $200k and that there is a maximum though the number is never given. We also know that salary and dependants factor in also. But that is it. So the problem then is you have a very impersonal film that does not give details when the moral is very personal but the film’s tone does not match it. 

Keaton is not new to this type of material and his limited TV series ‘Dopesick’ about the pain opioid epidemic is far more interesting and moving. 

Intellectually interesting but not emotionally moving in the way I would expect.