Love in the Time of Money

REVIEW
Smartly written and directed by Peter Mattei, Love in the Time of Money sets up a delightful, sexy, and suspenseful chain of desire set against money-and-sex obsessed 1990s Manhattan. Mattei’s delicious merry-go-La Ronde follows nine main characters as they connect and partake of exchanges, whether financial, sexual or both. The protagonists – straight, bisexual, and gay - include a morally conflicted contractor; a sexually frustrated housewife; a husband fostering a secret hankering; an artistic whore (or is it whoring artist?); a pair of philandering lovers; desperate kooks, and the just plain desperate.

Workshopped at the Sundance Filmmakers lab, Love in the Time of Money never lets a frame go by without telling us something. And Mattei does so impeccably with a shrewd wit, hysterical knack for dialogue, flawless sense of timing and unpredictable trove of twists. A brilliant ensemble cast of indie favorites – including Jill Hennessey, Steve Buscemi, Carol Kane, Michael Imperioli and Adrian Grenier - deftly bring their lust-and-cash-hungry characters to modern life. Sex indeed sells, but Mattei ensures it’s anything but cheap in this must-see debut feature.