Netflix's 9/11 Drama 'Worth' Reveals Release Date & New Poster

Netflix has just revealed the new poster as well as release date for Worth, the upcoming film set around the 9/11 aftermath and recovery process. The movie was directed by Sara Colangelo, the filmmaker behind The Kindergarten Teacher with Maggie Gyllenhaal. Screenwriter Max Borenstein penned the film based on the non-fiction book by Kenneth R. Feinberg titled What Is Life Worth?: The Unprecedented Effort to Compensate the Victims of 9/11.

The film and book follow the real-life story behind the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund. Michael Keaton stars as Feinberg, an attorney and mediator who is appointed by Congress to lead the fund. Feinberg and his team are faced with the impossible task of determining what a life is worth to the families who lost them, as the nation still reels from the insurmountable aftereffects of 9/11. Amy Ryan stars as Camille Biros, the firm's head of operations, with Stanley Tucci starring as a community organizer who lost his wife in the attacks. Rounding out the cast are Tate Donovan, Shunori Ramanathan, Talia Balsam, Laura Benanti, Marc Maron, Ato Blankson-Wood, Chris Tardio, Carolyn Mignini, and Victor SlezakWorth premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival to relatively positive reviews. Collider's Matt Goldberg called the film "a thoughtful procedural about the conflict between compassion and pragmatism," and highlighted the strong performances from Keaton and Tucci. The poster, cast and story overview pointedly draw allusions between the film and Spotlight, another procedural about a serious true story in America's history. The release date of September should fit in nicely with the other awards-friendly films, as Academy Award nominees and a poignant story based on true events are sure to draw some attention around awards season.

Additionally, the poster is sure to highlight Keaton, Ryan and Tucci, and I'm certain these reliably fantastic actors will demonstrate their usual talents with aplomb. Keaton will also appear in The Protégé, an action thriller starring Maggie Q and Samuel L. Jackson that will premiere in August. Ryan can be next seen in Only Murders in the Building, an upcoming murder mystery-comedy series premiering on Hulu. And Tucci will return as Dr. Abraham Erskine for an episode of Marvel's What If...?
Worth will premiere on Netflix in select markets on Friday, September 3. Check out the new poster below.

I like this late career run that Keaton has been on.

I'm with you on that. I'm always looking forward to his next movie and I went back and watched some of his older movies I didn't know yet. It's strange he wasn't in the spotlight (!) for nearly 20 years, although he was always making movies. His performances in Birdman, Spotlight and The Founder have been really good and when he pops up in something like The Trial of the Chicago 7 he immediately owns the screen.

Another Michael Keaton movie will be here in a few hours.

always a must-see.

Reviews: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/worth

I wonder why Netflix held onto this movie so long? Can’t believe it premiered at Sundance in January of 2020.

20th anniversary of 9/11 mayhaps?

Netflix didn’t acquire it until this year.

I got a chance to check out Worth and looking back, I was glad director Sara Colangelo chooses to start her movie the way she does. We get a black screen with the sounds of emergency vehicles and audio clips of panicked and confused people talking in the wake of the attack. This is immediately followed by a static shot of a woman talking about how she lost her son and how there wasn’t even a body for her to bury.

This brief but powerful opening reminds us of the tragedy of 9/11 and puts it in context. The woman’s story gives us a sense of loss that is difficult to put into words, showing us that the horror of that day cannot be reduced to simple mathematics or statistics.

Even though the movie begins in this fashion, I was still worried when Keaton’s Ken Feinberg gets introduced. He’s the head of a law firm and has experience dealing with wrongful death cases. Despite being married and having a grown child (who is only mentioned in a throwaway line), Feinberg is portrayed as a man who needs to have emotions in such cases set aside so all parties can settle the matter with a payout. That people have attachments that go well beyond dollar values seem to be beyond Feinberg who comes off as an alien who’s never been exposed to how humans think and feel.

What also had me concerned is when the movie gets to the Victim Compensation Fund and argues that it was driven by big business. Specifically, it’s the airlines who approach the Attorney General asking for some sort of government program to be set up so that the families and loved ones of those who perished don’t try to sue them. Government officials only silently nod in agreement when the airlines suggest that their being bankrupted by lawsuits would be catastrophic for the entire country because the ripple effect would put the economy into a tailspin. Feinberg steps up to the plate and volunteers to be the Special Master overseeing the fund, making it his job to administer it and ensure that at least 80% of claimants participate; otherwise it would go back to Congress where, as a few characters point out, the program would die and no one would get a single penny.

Why this didn’t sit well with me is that it felt as though Worth would be the story of the heroics of lawyers saving America by convincing people not to sue big business. From where I’m sitting, that’s an incredibly cynical message given all the lives lost in the attack and how devastated the surviving loved ones were by those deaths.

Fortunately, the movie is aware of how much pain and suffering was caused even when Feinberg can only grasp it at an intellectual level. We get to hear from people who are absolutely outraged when he shows that compensation is based on a formula. People who lost family members and friends seeking justice and closure are rightly incensed at the idea of their loved ones being reduced to a number.

From that point on, Worth follows Feinberg and his associates as they meet with survivors of those who died. It becomes apparent that the story is about Feinberg’s growth and his eventual realization that his reductive approach to death simply will not work in this case. This is something I struggle with in this film: on the one hand, putting the focus on Feinberg gives us an anchor, someone in whom we can invest. On the other hand, he's dealing with a tragedy of unimaginable proportion and people who’ve gone through a nightmarish existence that he cannot possibly comprehend, so the focus on him and his journey doesn’t feel quite right.

Also, the movie ties everything up with a neat bow, which ironically is a rather reductive recounting of actual events. The simple fact is that there are incredibly complex issues at play and the question of how to treat with respect the myriad of survivors of the fallen is indeed one that lacks a one-size-fits-all answer. Worth is definitely watchable thanks to solid performances by the entire cast, including the actors who are only on-screen for a minute or two playing the potential claimants. In terms of tackling this specific aspect of the 9/11 aftermath, it falls short because the subject is enormous, so we’re left with the story of a lawyer who needs a lesson about humanity.

Agreed. He kind of disappeared out of films for a long time, but I’ve enjoyed his comeback over the last several years.

I thought this was pretty good overall, but got a little too schmaltzy at the end.