TV Times

TV Times

‘Risk’: An element in insurance
By Susitha R. Fernando
‘Risk’ a film by Allan White of ‘Erskineville Kings’ fame revolving around an insurance scam is now being screened at the Liberty cinema in Colombo.

Starring Claudia Karvan, Brian Brown and Tom Long, the screenplay is written by John Armstrong and Steve Wright based on a short story, ‘The Adjuster’ by Tracy Kidder. An Australian production detailing the white-collar crime in the insurance field was the official selection for Toronto Film Festival-2000.

Ben Madigan (Tom Long) is one of many trying to make it in the sharp edged corporate world of insurance assessment. Ben’s boss is John Kreisky (Brian Brown) a hard-bitten veteran of the trade. Constantly overlooked by the company that he has saved millions for, Kreisky had concocted an ingenious scam, skimming the top off fake insurance claims supplied by the young, slick and vampish, solicitor, Louise Roncoli (Claudia Karvan). Together they’re a beautiful team but when Louise wants more the besotted Kreisky has to find a way to increase the cashflow.

Enter Ben Madigan, young, polite and with inbuilt sympathy for those in need. The perfect person to settle Kreisky’s huge pile of disputed claims, at a cut price, out of court, with the saving funding more and more fake claims set up by Louise.

As Ben realises he’s saving the company millions he wonders why he’s still stuck in a dog box of an office on a grade 1 salary. Kreisky’s reply is cold hard cash in a plain white envelope. But to Ben this has scam written all over it and he walks out. That is until Louise invites him to the beach.

Under Louise’s spell Ben ups the percentages and suspicions begin to rise. No longer in need of Kreisky, Louise tries to take control of the scam at any cost. It’s an accident waiting to happen and Ben is to learn that the most important rule of insurance is not who’s at fault, or who’s to blame, but who gets to walk away.

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