Netflix’s latest movie to enter the streaming giant’s catalog just hit the Top 10 trending movies this past weekend and it’s an apt addition in light of the 9/11 anniversary this Saturday. Marking its debut in the No. 9 spot on both the U.S. and Canadian charts, the social issue drama Worth earned a 78% freshness score on Rotten Tomatoes and has been praised for its “powerfully performed and rewardingly complex dramatization” of the real-life events that followed.
Starring Michael Keaton, Worth tells the true story of Kenneth Feinberg, a lawyer appointed by Congress to lead the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund. Faced with the dilemma of putting a dollar value on the lives lost, Feinberg and his head of operations, Camille Biros (Amy Ryan), face the impossible task but become determined to help the families any way they can who suffered incalculable losses. Stanley Tucci also stars as Charles Wolf, an advocate for the 9/11 survivor’s rights who campaigned for the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund after losing his wife in the World Trade Center. Helping to organize the community’s cries and concerns, Wolf soon butts heads with Feinberg, who is initially cynical about changing anything over the formula he has constructed to share with the victims’ families. However, following events that open his eyes and broaden his perspective on the loss, Feinberg begins to learn the true human costs of tragedy and works his hardest to make amends on the fund before it’s too late.
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Based on Feinberg’s memoir What Is Life Worth? The Unprecedented Effort to Compensate the Victims of 9/11, the movie — produced by Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company Higher Ground— has won the hearts of viewers on social media, many commending the film’s frank dialogue about the realities surrounding the real-life events, while also praising Keaton’s performance as Oscar-worthy. The movie also stars Tate Donovan, Shunori Ramanathan, Talia Balsam, Laura Benanti, Marc Maron, Ato Blankson-Wood, Chris Tardio, Carolyn Mignini and Victor Slezak.
While talking with Collider about the Sara Colangelo-directed movie acting as a reminder of the power of empathy and the value of human connection, Keaton revealed his roles in Spotlight, The Founder and Live From Baghdad helped him prepare for the real-life role. “They are three very different people from one another, but you have to do the basics, which is to be a little intrusive but for me anyway — be respectful. You know, but not hold back,” Keaton said. “You pick the great parts of what they have to tell you and the less than great — dark parts of what they have to tell you. So, at some part, you have to be a version of — at least I did — have to be a version of them. Otherwise, you’re trying to do an impression.” Keaton adds that while he finds it all “kind of hard” to move into a real-life person’s mindset, it is a challenge he welcomes as the circumstances beyond understanding the compensation fund were “eye-opening, to say the least.”
