The Laundromat is a 2019 American biographical comedy-drama film directed by Steven Soderbergh with a screenplay by Scott Z. Burns. It stars Meryl Streep, Gary Oldman, Antonio Banderas, Jeffrey Wright, David Schwimmer, Matthias Schoenaerts, James Cromwell, and Sharon Stone. It is based on the Panama Papers scandal.
The film had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on September 1, 2019. It was released theatrically on September 27, 2019, before being released for digital streaming by Netflix on October 18, 2019. The film has received mixed reviews from critics, scoring 41% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 153 reviews.
Plot
The film opens with Jürgen Mossack and Ramón Fonseca introducing themselves and the concept/practices of money laundering. For the rest of the film, Mossack and Fonseca act as narrators for three stories of people around the world who are affected by the company they run, Mossack Fonseca.
Ellen Martin and her husband Joe are on a pleasure boat at Lake George, New York when it capsizes, drowning Joe. When Ellen tries to get compensation from the boating company for Joe’s death, she cannot because the reinsurance company that the boat company’s owner and son Matthew bought their policy from was sold to another company based out of Nevis. The Nevis-based company is actually a trust of one of Mossack’s shell companies and is under investigation by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for fraud. After her attempts to contact Mossack and the Nevis-based company are unsuccessful, Ellen travels to Nevis to confront Malchus Boncamper, the manager of the trust. Malchus tricks Ellen and escapes to Miami only to be caught and arrested by IRS-CI Special Agents at a Miami airport.
The second story is about Simone, who is the daughter of Charles, an African billionaire. When Simone discovers her best friend is having an affair with Charles, he offers her shares (supposedly worth $20 million) in one of his investment companies to keep her silence. She accepts his offer, but when she travels to Mossack’s offices in Panama City to claim the shares, they turn out to be worthless because they are actually part of a shell company under Mossack that only exists on paper.
The third story is a dramatization of the death of Neil Heywood, part of the Wang Lijun incident. Heywood (renamed “Maywood” in the film), is an intermediary for wealthy Chinese looking to funnel money abroad. He visits a Chongqing hotel to meet Gu Kailai. Maywood demands and pressures Gu for a much higher price if she wants him to continue laundering money for her family through a shell company Mossack owns. Gu responds by poisoning Maywood’s drinks. Gu discloses the incident and reports Maywood to Chongqing police chief Wang Lijun who secretly records the conversation; he then reports her to the Chinese government. The story ends with the arrest of Gu and her husband Bo Xilai for Maywood’s murder and for corruption.
The film ends with the leaking of the Panama Papers and subsequent police raids on Mossack Fonseca, the brief imprisonment of Mossack and Fonseca, and the shutdown of the firm. Mossack and Fonseca, along with Meryl Streep as herself, remind viewers that many such companies still exist, and the practice of money laundering and corruption using fake trusts and shell companies based in tax havens is still widespread. The film ends with Streep making a statement about the immediate need for campaign finance reforms in the US before adopting the Statue of Liberty’s pose.
Cast
Meryl Streep as Ellen Martin/Elena/Herself
Gary Oldman as Jürgen Mossack
Antonio Banderas as Ramón Fonseca
Sharon Stone as Hannah
David Schwimmer as Matthew Quirk
Matthias Schoenaerts as Maywood
Jeffrey Wright as Malchus Irvin Boncamper
Will Forte as Doomed Gringo 1
Chris Parnell as Doomed Gringo 2
James Cromwell as Joseph David “Joe” Martin
Melissa Rauch as Melanie Martin
Larry Wilmore as Jeff
Robert Patrick as Captain Richard Paris
Rosalind Chao as Gu Kailai
Jesse Wang as Bo Xilai
Nikki Amuka-Bird as Miranda
Nonso Anozie as Charles
Jessica Allain as Simone
Amy Pemberton as Fetching
Cristela Alonzo as IRS-CI Special Agent Kilmer
Jay Paulson as Pastor Conners
Charles Halford as Pyro Guy (uncredited)
Shoshana Bush as Rebecca Rubinstein
Norbert Weisser as Swiss Skier
Juliet Donenfeld as ThaliaJuliet Donenfeld Archives
Marsha Stephanie Blake as Vincelle Boncamper
Veronica Osorio as Maria
Reviews
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