Debt as a Philosophical Condition in "Payback"

Comments (0) By Mark Holcomb Thursday, May 24 2012

Zeitgeist Films

A scene from Payback, a film by Jennifer Baichwal.

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Living Room Theaters

777 Glades Road
Boca Raton, FL 33431

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Region: Boca Raton

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Payback, opens May 25 at Living Room Theaters, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton. Call 561-549-2600.

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This riff on Margaret Atwood's 2008 book-length essay, Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth, avoids the traps of recent social-problem documentaries. But if there's value in Payback's all-encompassing point of view, it's a weakness as well. Screenwriter-director Jennifer Baichwal pegs Atwood's thesis that debt is as philosophical of a condition as it is a fiscal one and that its contemporary context is overbearingly punitive. The thesis is shown with case studies like a Canadian career criminal "paying his debt to society" in prison and an Albanian family whose ugly feud with another clan boils indebtedness down to its sticky essence. Other parties weigh in, including econo-activist Raj Patel and disgraced mogul Conrad Black, who, of all people, speaks movingly about incarceration. Atwood appears, of course, to read passages from her book in characteristic deadpan. But drawing on so many sources leaves Payback feeling truncated and even dilettantish. Cinematic globe-trotting doesn't necessarily trump reading a good book; then again, more movies should be burdened with the flaw of being too intellectually curious.