Indiewire reports, the darkly comedic “The Laundromat,” which screened at the Venice and Toronto film festivals, follows Meryl Streep as a vacationer who finds herself chasing the origins of a fake insurance policy, leading her to the law firm of Mossack Fonseca which actually in real life did play a prominent role in the Panama Papers. Jürgen Mossack and Ramón Fonseca, are currently under federal indictment.
IndieWire’s Eric Kohn in his B review described the film as “money-laundering for dummies” thanks to its fourth-wall-breaking explanations about shell companies, corporate tax laws, and offshore accounts.
In the film, Gary Oldman and Antonio Banderas play the lawyers who, according to the Panama Papers document leak, allegedly helped the mega-rich stash billions in offshore accounts to evade taxes.
Of course, libertarians will have a different take on the morality of such money laundering, depending on the reason for the laundering, then say Elizabeth Warren.
Based on the trailer, it appears the film portrays the laundering as being done as part of a scam that cheats others rather than tax avoidance, but outside of government officials who had accounts, most of the laundering was likely tax avoidance-related in real life.
The lawyers are suing Netflix, the distributor, in an attempt to stop Friday's release. They don't like the way they are portrayed in the film.
Here's the trailer:
-RW
....it's the laundromat --or the dry-cleaner. What a choice!!
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