Narcissism reigns supreme as the WeWork startup positions itself as one of the world’s most valuable – and promptly crashes around the ears of messiah-like founder, Adam Neumann (Jared Leto) as greed overtakes business acumen.
With brilliant insight, Neumann recognised the potential of shared work space with relaxed environments promoting communication, interchange and collaboration. A simple concept based on Neumann’s own kibbutz upbringing in Israel. Along with architect Miguel McKelvey (an ultra-cautious Kyle Marvin) and Neumann’s wife Rebekah Paltrow-Neumann (Anne Hathaway), a multinational business evolved. But the Neumanns believed their concept to be a way of life with more and more ‘We’ ideas demanding more and more finance. Money followed money – until there was no more and the plug was pulled, losing billions in order to save the company with the Neumanns forced out.
WeCrashed is an extraordinary eight part miniseries based on actual events. Leto is equally mesmerising and infuriating with a mix of charm and arrogance: Hathaway, giving her all, is plain New Age annoying as she positions herself as the spiritual soul of the company but who ultimately has little place among the corporate billions. Hers should have been the bypass narrative to reduce the length of the miniseries to six rather than eight episodes. Like Neumann himself, excess after excess eventuates from intriguing into tedium, reducing the dramatic impact of the incredible story.
Rating: 67%
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