In the clink

Any sense of life, alas, is largely denied to Rogue Trader (probably because it's based on the real life exploits of Nick Leeson, bringing down Barings Bank from his place in the Singapore sun). James Dearden's film of the greatest financial fiasco of the Nineties gets a rush release to beat Leeson's early release from prison - but nobody really needed to hurry: this is a once and continuing clinker. Dearden's a plodding, static director who, predictably enough, can make nothing of his own plodding, static script.

Thus the voiceover voice of Ewan McGregor's Leeson delivers GCSE lectures on contemporary capitalism - Indonesia is a 'so-called tiger economy' and one of what we term 'Asia's emerging markets': the Nikkei is Japan's stock market, not a training shoe - and much clunky dialogue is devoted to helping the back stalls understand what's going on. ('I think I've lost £800 million...' Wifely sighs. 'Oh, Nick ...')

All is not entirely lost, though. McGregor and his Lisa (Anna Friel) act their socks off to make us care, and occasionally succeed. The dozy gentleman's club of Barings - sniffily recruiting fly boys to whip up the profits far away - is luridly captured. But do we, in truth, learn much that yellowed newspaper cuttings can't tell us about this morality tale of globalised disaster? It splashes and sinks in the banality not of evil, but of the authorised biography. Good old Nicky: it was the innate kindliness of his nature plus sloppy supervision what let the lad from Watford down. Perhaps - but this is soft hagiography rather than history. Sir David Frost is one of its producers. Dr Savundra never had it this easy.