Greed is an unsubtle, occasionally cloying, yet cracking film, balancing social conscience with laugh-out-loud satire

MICHAEL WINTERBOTTOM’S comedy starring Steve Coogan as a thinly veiled Philip Green does more than crack gags about fashion – it’s a biting swipe against money, power and, well, greed.

Coogan is Sir Richard McCreadie — a billionaire fashion tycoon on the cusp of turning 60 and needing a boost to his public profile after a public inquiry into his business and tax affairs tore him to shreds.

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He does this by putting on a hugely extravagant Roman Empire- themed birthday party on the Greek island of Mykonos, which involves a makeshift amphitheatre, a host of A-list guests and a real-life lion.

His hugely dysfunctional family filter in to join the celebrations, along with a slightly wet handpicked official biographer (David Mitchell) and a smattering of party organisers and staff growing increasingly uncomfortable at McCreadie’s demands.

We learn of the tycoon’s rise to fame via flashbacks and are slowly spoonfed a tale of a barrow boy’s ambition morphing him into an aggressive, cash-grabbing bully who chases the deal and to hell with the consequences.

The sweatshops of Sri Lanka bear the brunt of his “Nod your head, shake my hand” approach to negotiations and the knock-on effect of their ever-decreasing margins is eventually brought back to haunt him.

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This is an unsubtle, occasionally cloying, yet cracking film, balancing social conscience with laugh-out-loud satire as well as it can — its inclusion of a beachful of  Syrian refugees feels slightly tacked-on for good luck.

These sub-plots, although crude, merge together well — one of McCreadie’s daughters is filming a Made In Chelsea-type show which ends up with said refugees fighting over takeaway chicken on a beach, while Made In Chelsea’s Ollie Locke, playing her secretly gay boyfriend, looks on in bewilderment.

While this is clearly an attack on moguls without morals, it never feels too preachy, yet never delivers the killer blow either.

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Coogan, who has worked with Winterbottom many times, is as relaxed as I’ve seen him outside of Partridge, and the supporting cast, such as David Mitchell, Tim Key and Isla Fisher as McCreadie’s first wife and safe haven for all his cash, are great.

There is also a hugely impressive list of celebrity cameos and some hilarious lookalikes — one of the best scenes features a George Michael not-so-doppleganger booked to fool guests three years after his death.

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Chris Martin appears alongside Louis Walsh via video message and James Blunt shows exactly what a celeb will do for money.

With desperately tragic timing, the first few minutes of the film features what is probably the last screen appearance of Caroline Flack, smiling brightly for the cameras.

A funny, brash swipe at you-know-who — but it could have sharpened its teeth a little more.

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GREED (15) 104mins    

★★★★☆

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