99 Homes Review
By David Kempler
A House Is Not a Home
A man lies dead in a bathroom in a pool of his own blood. The camera pulls back and we see a well-dressed man looking at the scene, with no discernible emotion on his face. The man is real estate mogul Richard Carver (Michael Shannon). The fact that a man is dead is not even secondary to Carver. He's on the phone talking real estate deals, specifically foreclosures from which he can squeeze profits.
Dennis Nash (Andrew Garfield) is one of the people losing their home in a foreclosure. He's a construction worker who has fallen three months behind in his mortgage payments. Carver and two local cops knock on his door to tell him to vacate. These same two cops are with Carver every time there is an eviction order to enforce.
Nash has his young son living with him and Nash's mother (Laura Dern) lives there, as well. His mother also runs an unsuccessful business out of their home. After they leave their home, they go to the only place they can afford. It's a borderline fleabag hotel where other people who have lost their homes reside. Nash tells himself and his family that they will only be there for a short while. Another resident tells him that they once thought the same thing, but it's been three years for them at the hotel. Nash is desperate and when Carver offers him a job working for him, he accepts, even though he is well aware that this might not end too well.
At first, things go great for Nash. The money is pouring in even though it is now his job to evict the homeowners who have defaulted. He is torn, but not too torn to keep doing it. We know that something bad will happen to Nash. It's only a matter of time. When the moment of truth comes, the question is how Nash will react to it.
Writer-director Ramin Bahrani has created a morality play based on the manipulation of the housing crisis in 2008. He has laid it all out and then uses Carver's talks with Nash to offer his opinions of what really caused the housing bubble and the reasons it burst. Carver's chats are one of the few moments where the political preaching almost gets in the way of the story. I'm not saying the explanation is inaccurate, though. The explanation of what went on in the housing crisis has come a couple of years later than it should have.
Michael Shannon is outstanding, as usual. It is his performance that makes this worth your while. Everyone else is good, but this is another showcase for Shannon's overwhelming screen presence. Despite the occasional contrived moment, "99 Homes" is still tense and compelling fare, and if you don't go see it, you better hope you never run into Shannon's penetrating stare in person.
