Worth – What Is Life Worth (2020)

Directed by: Sara Colangelo | 118 minutes | biography, drama | Actors: Michael Keaton, Stanley Tucci, Amy Ryan, Tate Donovan, Shunori Ramanathan, Talia Balsam, Laura Benanti, Chris Tardio, Ato Blankson-Wood, Carolyn Mignini, Victor Slezak

The events of 9/11 have a long resonance, not least for the families of the 2,977 official dead. The individual stories are tragic enough, as is the legal aftermath. Michael Keaton plays in ‘Worth’ the OM-appointed leader of the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund. The title refers to the question raised in the opening scenes of what a human life is worth in dollars. An impossible question that is legitimate at the same time.

The makers do not show any images of the events, but only sounds in the opening images, and they immediately focus on the moral issue, perhaps a bit boring at the beginning. The undersigned has natural aversion to raising ethical issues such as those mentioned; in the American setting, this fact is treated with respect. The interpretation of the leading perspective of top lawyer Kenneth Feinberg (Keaton) is interesting.

Can the rational Feinberg – part of an elite – be an idealist for the common man? Both attitudes are humanely justifiable and can be united. You don’t have to make this film, based on Feinberg’s book ‘What is Life Worth?’; the makers of ‘Worth’ – director Sara Colangelo previously made ‘Little Accidents’ about a mining accident, choose a nuanced approach anyway.

Is Keaton, who can put on a good face, the right person for the role of eminent lawyer? We doubt. Of course, airlines want to limit the legal damage. Feinberg works for nothing, commendably, so here we are facing an American moral drama. Fight and hold, and so on. That was not that bad; the film opts for an emphatically human perspective, based on the relatives.

‘People are rational animals’, is one of Feinberg’s statements; he has a hard time with compassion, which Keaton shows well. The cast is filled with, among others, Stanley Tucci, as next of kin; the actor clash is well worth a look. ‘Worth’ remains a bit thin in a dramatic way; the events themselves are dramatic enough. The shortage is compensated by the harrowing stories, although they remain given by ‘real life’.