Risk/Reward

A quietly compelling documentary that is refreshing in both form and content.

To its credit, the movie has as little patience for nonessential nonsense as the women it portrays.

Lacking the overall drama of "Startup.com" or "e-Dreams," pic more than compensates with skillful presentation and the fascinating power of its subjects, femme movers and shakers who perform high-wire juggling acts between their personal and professional lives every day.

In the end, you're left to pick your moral: Money changes everything or money isn't everything or both.

Holder and Parker tread lightly on issues of sexism, and sex in general, and leave us wishing more questions were asked.

For all the film's aggressive crosscutting, the individual stories would work just as well apart as together, because they pack less cumulative power when yoked awkwardly into one sweeping statement.

The moderately arresting Risk/Reward suffers from a lack of resources and is writ small, suggesting that it may play better on television.