‘Worth’ review: An over-the-top drama unworthy of 9/11 true story

The first weighty question Michael Keaton asks in his new movie is: “What is life worth?”

Intriguing. But then throughout the film, aptly called “Worth,” other actors essentially pose the same question over and over again.

“Those towers had CEOs and executives — they won’t all say yes to the same number,” says a congressman of the Sept. 11 victims’ relatives. “Anybody wanna go on record with what that number is?”

Later at a town hall meeting for families regarding the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, a grieving father shouts out, “My daughter’s life is worth just as much as any in a corner office.”

All that thunderous dialogue could use a touch-up.

I’ll grant that the fund is surprisingly rich fodder for a movie. Kenneth Feinberg (Keaton), the man who was appointed special master in charge of figuring out how much money each family would receive, and tasked with convincing them to sign on to the plan to avoid lawsuits, is a complex guy. Over the course of the film, premiering Friday on Netflix, he evolves from a cold and methodical arithmetic wonk to a compassionate listener who’s willing to change.

But the writing in Max Borenstein’s script continuously eschews subtlety for static melodrama. You hear the same lines repeated ad nauseam, only slightly tweaked and louder and angrier every time.

Feinberg’s nemesis is Charles Wolf (a noncommittal Stanley Tucci), a man whose wife died in the World Trade Center attacks and then created a popular blog called “Fix the Fund!” Wolf tries to shift Feinberg’s formulaic thinking with confrontational pressure, but Feinberg’s change of heart begins when he steps out from behind his desk and interviews wives and other loved ones of the dead.

Those confessionals can and should deliver an emotional wallop; however, Sara Colangelo’s direction isn’t skillful or nuanced enough to give the scenes power. The speeches from actors, such as Laura Benanti, about the worst day in all of these people’s lives feel too rehearsed and polished for us to believe them.

As in “Spotlight,” Keaton is well-suited to social justice roles. He has a natural fighting spirit, and he doesn’t look like a self-absorbed Hollywood star. Here, though, he’s stymied by a molasses-thick Massachusetts accent that may pahk the cah on Hahvahd Yahd, but does not capture an audience’s imagination.

Like everyone else in “Worth,” Keaton can’t stop capital-A Acting.