Steve Coogan teams up with writer-director Michael Winterbottom once again, this time bringing us a satire mostly based upon, although never explicitly stated, British businessman Sir Philip Green. Green is the chairman of Arcadia Group, which includes a list of retailers such as Topshop, Dorothy Perkins and Burton, to name but a few. He came in for criticism due to his role in the downfall of BHS, as well as his general controversial behaviour and exploitation of sweatshops, leading to calls for him to be stripped of his knighthood.
Here though, as the portrayal is a lot more veiled, Coogan plays a character named Sir Richard McCreadie, with Greed mainly focusing on the build up to his 60th birthday party. Intertwined with this, we also get flashbacks to his earlier life, along with the attempts of journalist Nick, played by David Mitchell, to build up a biographical profile of McCreadie’s life. The rest of the cast list is seriously impressive, with Isla Fisher, Shirley Henderson, Asa Butterfield and Sophie Cookson rounding out the rest of the McCreadie family. There are also a few celebrity cameos throughout the film as McCreadie tries to tempt them into appearing as his party to boost his reputation and some of these are the comedic highlights of the film.
Coogan gives a brilliant and convincing performance as an unpleasant, self-centred man and yet he still manages to carry that sense of charisma that makes it believable enough that he would appeal to other people to the point of having them onside. This is a really difficult line to walk and if he had gone too far in either direction, it could potentially have come across as too much, but this is perfect casting and he carries the film in some parts. The acting all round is pretty solid, David Mitchell essentially plays himself as a nervous, awkward journalist, something he readily admits in interviews, but that every man, relatable aspect of his character becomes absolutely key as the story progresses. Dinita Gohil as Amanda, part of McCreadie’s planning team for the party, also becomes more important and involved as the film goes on and I liked her performance here too. A special mention also goes to Sophie Cookson, who I’m most familiar with from Kingsman, who gives a great comedic performance as McCreadie’s daughter Lily, who stars in a reality TV show on the level of TOWIE/Made In Chelsea and the parts with her in the film satirise these types of shows really well.
The humour here can sometimes be a little hit and miss, but it lands for the most part and lands effectively. Coogan is a well-established comedic legend and he brings a lot of energy to the film. The soundtrack is also great, as you’d expect from the director of 24 Hour Party People, there are loads of upbeat tunes that make an appearance throughout that really add to the film. The narrative in Greed also managed to surprise me, at one point in the middle of the film I thought I had a grasp on it, but as it moved towards the end, it did manage to surprise me and stray away from being anywhere near predictable, this was something that impressed me about the film, in that it wasn’t afraid to push into the realms of ridiculousness as a satire. A few satire type films can be afraid to go the full way and hold back a little bit, removing the point of them being a satire in the first place, but Greed can’t really be accused of that, from a narrative standpoint anyway.
Where the film isn’t as strong is perhaps in the delivery of it’s overall message. There are really two main themes going on here, the first being the examination of McCreadie and the questionable morality of how his businesses operate and the second being the refugee crisis. These are both incredibly serious and complex subjects which even within the realm of a satire need to be explored and given the time and respect that they deserve. However, it can feel like at points in the film both of these themes sort of clash with each other and even though the signs are there for a link to be made between the two, it never really is. Along with this, the two characters who become crucial to the plot in Asa Butterfield’s Finn and the aforementioned Amanda, never really get the development needed early on in the film, with this time instead being shared with other characters. With the film not being particularly long at around 1hr 45 minutes, there could have been a call to either cut some more unnecessary parts to make time for these characters and themes or make the film a little longer to allow for this too. If this had been done I feel like the film would have been a lot more powerful and it’s messages would have hit home even more than they already do.
Greed is a solid film, with a lot of enjoyable moments and lively sequences. It can at times though, feel like a film with a lot of good ideas with some never being fully realised to their full potential. Satire has been and can be an incredibly powerful tool, it uses absurdity to remind us of and evoke real world concepts and events. What it does do most strongly here is to show the detachment of those with a ridiculous amount of money from reality, however with a little more development and streamlining of themes, this could have gone from a good film to a great film. As it is, it’s probably worth watching just due to the cast, direction and editing which help to add extra energy to the film and give it enough strong points to carry it through.
Overall rating – 🌟🌟🌟/5
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