If financial thrillers are your thing, set aside July 29 to attend the theater debut of the movie “Equity.”
Hailed as the “first female-driven Wall Street movie” by Candace L. Straight, a former investment banker and the film's executive producer at an exclusive premiere in Chicago on July 19, the main character's gender becomes irrelevant as the convoluted plot rolls along.
The storyline focuses on investment banker Naomi Bishop (actress Anna Gunn), who is trying to pull off a lucrative initial public offering for a Silicon Valley company. She's pulled off big deals like this before, but this time Naomi is surrounded by traitorous colleagues, friends and a truly amoral lover, Michael Connor (actor James Purefoy). He happily trolls through Naomi's e-mail (while she is sleeping) in pursuit of insider-trading tips he can pass to an obnoxious hedge fund manager through a novel delivery system — hedgehog plush toys.
The clever plot eventually leads to the ruination of Naomi's investment banking career thanks to a betrayal by her own assistant, Erin Manning (actress Sarah Megan Thomas), who passes tips to Michael in a late-night tete-a-tete.
Naomi ultimately walks out of the posh investment bank's offices alone, but the rest of the characters offer a few surprises in her absence. To avoid spoilers, you'll have to get a big bag of popcorn and watch the movie to its very end.
