The Laundromat

An often excessively irreverent endeavor, The Laundromat explores the buildup to and consequences of the infamous 2015 Panama Papers leak. It’s clear immediately that filmmaker Steven Soderbergh isn’t looking to deliver a typical, straight-forward drama here, as The Laundromat boasts a whole host of oddball elements that cumulatively lend the picture the feel of a briskly-paced series of lectures and reenactments – with this vibe set in place right from the outset as Soderbergh establishes ongoing commentary from a pair of disgraced businessmen (Gary Oldman’s Jürgen Mossack and Antonio Banderas’ Ramón Fonseca). Soderbergh’s energetic sensibilities, coupled with a veritable cavalcade of familiar faces in periphery roles, ensure that The Laundromat is at its best in its opening half hour, with the episodic structure, past that point, paving the way for an exceedingly hit-and-miss midsection that admittedly does contain a small handful of engrossing sequences (eg Meryl Streep’s Ellen Martin explains why she wants a very specific apartment, a wealthy financier deals with a rather melodramatic family situation, etc). There’s little doubt, however, that the procedural-like bent of Scott Z. Burns’ screenplay ensures that one’s interest begins to steadily wane as time progresses, and it’s hard to deny that the impenetrable, virtually impossible-to-comfortably-follow atmosphere makes it more and more difficult to care about any of this (ie it becomes lamentably clear that character development isn’t a top priority for either Soderbergh or Burns). By the time the overtly didactic finale rolls around, The Laundromat has certainly confirmed its place as a strange misfire that doesn’t really succeed as the informative docudrama Soderbergh has obviously intended.

** out of ****