REVIEW: Netflix’s Worth Gives a Different Look at 9/11

What is a life worth? It’s the first question posed in Netflix’s new film, Worth and one that resonates throughout the film. Worth is based on the true story of Kenneth Feinberg, an attorney who is tasked with leading the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund. The fund was setup to compensate those who lost someone or were impacted by the attacks on September 11, 2001. It is up to him and his team to decide how much each claimant should get and to really determine what the “worth” of someone’s life is and if there are some lives worth more than others.

Screenwriter Max Borenstein and director Sara Colangelo intertwine the question of just what is a life worth into each and every scene. Their ability to keep this question the focus without forcing or overusing it creates a well-developed, albeit terribly sad, film. Each character is faced with attempting to answer this question that shouldn’t have to be asked and even when an answer is found, often as the , result of making an incredibly challenging decision, Borenstein and Colangelo manage to not turn any of the characters into a villain. You sympathize with every character introduced in the film and the unbelievable hardships they faced. Whether it be one of the lawyers working on the fund grappling with survivor’s guilt or one of the victims also dealing with survivor’s guilt, no one has it easy.

Michael Keaton shines as Feinberg and while his Boston accent was not always the best it doesn’t distract from his overall performance. He took a character that to start you’re almost certain you won’t like and made him someone you wanted to root for and see succeed. Stanley Tucci played Charles Wolf, a man who started a website fighting the fund after losing his wife during the attacks on the World Trade Center and he was also phenomenal. The lone drawback was not having more scenes between Tucci and Keaton. These two were pure gold when on screen together as two foes on opposing sides who somehow find a way to relate and challenge one another. Amy Ryan stars as Feinberg’s righthand Camille Biros and was rock solid from start to finish. Her character has some of the more heart wrenching moments and Ryan made sure the audience felt every emotion in those scenes.

Worth is a much different look at the events surrounding 9/11. Over the last 20 years, multiple documentaries and movies have been made about what happened on that dreadful day, but nothing has ever really given audiences a look into what happened to those who lost so much that day but survived. Worth does just that in depicting the struggle that many people faced after that horrid day. And it will leave you asking, what is a life worth?

Grade: A