Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Worth’ on Netflix, a Worthy 9/11 Drama Anchored by Michael Keaton

Worth officially debuted at Sundance in 2020, but is finally being widely released by Netflix to coincide with the 20th anniversary of 9/11. The film is a Based On A True Story (or BOATS for the initiated) drama about real-life lawyer Kenneth Feinberg, who famously oversaw the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund; he’s played by Michael Keaton, who’s joined by Stanley Tucci and Amy Ryan. It’s a sensitive topic, yes, but here’s hoping the movie is about more than just how it took 9/11 for a slippery lawyer to find his soul.

WORTH: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: We open on a heart-wrenching testimonial by the mother of a 9/11 victim, her words are tonally steady but still drenched in grief. She concludes, “How do you go on from there? How do you calculate that?” Cut to Ken Feinberg (Keaton), writing “What is life worth?” on a chalkboard, then setting up a hypothetical scenario for his students in which they’re asked to put a dollar value on the loss of a man’s life. Afterwards, we see Ken at the law firm office, commanding the place confidently like he owns the joint, because he does.

Later, we see Ken on a plane and at home, headphones on, immersing himself in classical opera. We see the morning bustle of a family, kids chattering, the mother declaring breakfast is ready, the father in firefighter garb running out the door. We see Charles Wolf (Tucci) at his kitchen table, typing on his computer, saying goodbye to his wife, who reminds him of the chicken piccata in the fridge. Then we see Ken on a commuter train wearing headphones, oblivious to the commotion among his fellow passengers — their cellphones are ringing and they appear distraught. The train stops. A plume of black smoke billows on the horizon.

Subtitle: SEPTEMBER 22, 2001. Ken sits in a meeting with D.C. politicians and lawyers. Someone has to help the United States mitigate lawsuits from 9/11 survivors and their families; the government will start a compensation fund, because, the politicians insist, if thousands of people sue, it’ll cripple the federal economy. Ken interviews with Attorney General John Ashcroft (Victor Slezak) and lands the gig — and he’ll do it pro bono. That’s his duty as an American. He wants to help. He’s an expert on calculating compensation values for human life; he and his firm handled asbestos and agent orange cases. He and his right hand Camille Biros (Ryan) assemble a team of lawyers to devise a formula that’ll arrive at a payout for victims. It involves income and debt and the laws in the state of residency and many other factors. Ken sets a deadline of Dec., 2003 for 80 percent of eligible recipients to file their claim. Easy. Neat. Tidy.

But not quite. Ken hosts an information session for victims, and beforehand, he’s confident. He’s too old to be cocky, so we’ll just say he’s a little brash. He soldiers through the session: People openly weep, and yell at him, and insult him. He says a lot of insensitive things. One guy, Charles Wolf, stands up: “Let’s hear him out.” They hear him out. Ken meets with Charles afterwards and Charles tells him point blank that the proposition is insulting. Cold. Calculated. His wife died on 9/11. He’s upset but carries on in a calm and reasonable manner. He hands out fliers promoting his website, titled Fix the Fund. The fund that funnels all these individuals and their stories and situations and unbearable grief into a formula and spits out a number. It might not be “fair,” but it’s a compromise, Ken insists. Charles shakes his head. And during the subsequent months, Ken digs in despite getting very few people to sign on. Meanwhile, Charles amasses the thousands of victims behind his humble campaign. Representatives of the families of rich stock traders who died pressure Ken to give them more money. Ashcroft says he isn’t applying any political pressure while he’s totally applying political pressure. Ken is getting it from all sides. Something has to give, doesn’t it?

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Worth tries to combine the emotional stories of World Trade Center with the issue-driven procedural drama of Spotlight.

Performance Worth Watching: Here’s where we gripe that too many movies fail to appreciate Amy Ryan, although she has a note or two more to play here than some other thankless supporting roles. And of course Keaton is the undeniable star, his work notable for his restraint despite plenty of opportunities to go flamboyantly charismatic — and it’s a smart move on his part, not overshadowing the power of the core material.

Memorable Dialogue: Ken unwittingly utters two contradictory statements when he says, “This is something I’m good at. This is something I can do to help.”

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: Worth is a conventionally structured film with a third act that’s too artificially rah-rah, track-the-numbers-on-the-whiteboard, down-to-the-wire suspenseful for its own good. Yet it balances such blandly crowd-pleasing elements with the moral wrestling match that occurs in the story’s big, smoky gray area. Ken wants to believe in his system, which adheres to the age-old philosophy that compromise pleases nobody on the way to its goal of simply resolving the conflict. It’s classic lawyer hot air just waiting for a righteous wind to blow it outta here — an easy dramatic target for the movie, although it finds some nuance in Keaton and Tucci’s thoughtful exchanges.

Whether or not it went down like that for Feinberg in real life doesn’t really matter, because the film cultivates a little optimism and hope that people are still capable of doing the right thing, even if it’s at the last possible minute. It’s never just about Ken and his internal struggle — on a deeper level, it addresses how a person of influence can wield power ethically and responsibly. (It’s no secret that Feinberg’s plan was successful, although I’ll leave the stones of the film’s dramatic details for you to turn over.)

Director Sara Colangelo (The Kindergarten Teacher) nicely orchestrates a lot of moving parts here, including Ken’s arc, the multiple players trying to influence his decisions and a handful of victims’ stories, including a grieving widow whose late husband harbored a devastating secret to a gay man who stands to get nothing because he and his partner weren’t married. It’s an engrossing watch, the film moving sure and steady through moments of conceptual discussion and raw emotion. It’s fine-tuned like an intricate wristwatch, its many narrative pieces functioning efficiently, its performances subtle, its tone stopping short of manipulative sentiment. It’s sometimes too well-heeled to truly tap into a collective moral ache like Spotlight did, but it’s nonetheless a strong, worthy drama.

Our Call: Worth is top-to-bottom sturdy — highly watchable, nicely acted and restrained in its poignancy. STREAM IT.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba.

Stream Worth on Netflix