Although elegantly appointed and possessed of a provocative theme, Rollover is a fundamentally disappointing political-romantic thriller [from a story by David Shaber, Howard Kohn and David Weir] set in the rarified world of international high finance.
Coiffed and gowned to the hilt, Jane Fonda plays a former film star whose corporate big-wheel husband is mysteriously murdered. Bank troubleshooter Kris Kristofferson is called in to try to right the ailing firm, quickly begins consoling the widow by night as well as by day and soon accompanies her to Saudi Arabia to firm a deal for venture capital, which, while giving Fonda the board chairmanship, also hands the Arabs the final financial trump card.
Eventually transpires that the Arabs decide not to ‘rollover’, or redeposit, their huge sums in the bank, which sends the banking community, Wall Street and the entire international financial network into chaos.
It’s a scary theme, and Pakula’s previously displayed expertise at conveying pervasive paranoia triggered by massive conspiracies at high levels is perfectly in tune with the story’s aims. But there’s a certain lack of reality, cued in part by numerous melodramatic contrivances.
