SHARED SPACE EARNS BILLION DOLLAR LOSSES

HATHAWAY SHINES ON DESPITE HER TV HUSBAND’S NEGLECT

By PETER THOMAS BUSCH

A couple of characters in love end up supporting each other through a million dollar start up that became a billion dollar crash test dummy.

Jared Leto provides the thinnest of takes on the Israeli born entrepreneur, Adam Newmann, working from the very beginning from absolutely nothing in cold hard, lonely New York City.

Anne Hathaway costars with that compelling whimsey that love can provide, with her usual great performance through a lot of real life ups and downs as Rebekah Newmann.

While the couple find real love together, including a real sustaining love that promotes self confidence in the business venture, the recklessness of the business plan cannot be kept secret for long.

Miguel McKelvey, played by Kyle Marvin, gets lured into the start up as Leto reveals Neumann more and more to be strictly an ideas man with the marketing panache, while McKelvey does more and more of all the hard work of developing the idea and the business plan.

Directors Glenn Ficarra (3 episodes) John Requa (3) Tinge Krishnan (2) Shari Springer Berman (1) and Robert Pulcini (1) weave the three storylines for a few episodes until McKelvey takes more of a back seat as Newmann seeks investors to foster global growth.

The true power dynamics are at play with McKelvey becoming less important to the growing business as Newmann becomes more flamboyant in seeking out investors, while Rebekah begins to struggle with her supporting role as she begins to spend more time at home to raise the couple’s children.

As the children get older, though, Rebekah seeks to restore her role in the company, especially after getting slighted in introductions to visiting celebrities.

Hathaway shows how Rebekah dug deep down to restore her image in the company by taking on the role of CEO of Branding – but not before having to fire a few people who no longer gave her the respect she deserved.

Leto creates the eccentric self-centered CEO who has big ideas but little technical business sense. Newmann is the classic ideas person taking a lot of credit away from talented staff implementing broad brush ideas.

In episode 5, WeWork meets the point of no return with the need for big investment to spur continued growth or collapse under financial pressure from creditors waiting in the wings.

The WeWork concept is that of providing a shared workspace inside inspiring locations in New York City and other metropolitan cities around the world, but also in generating a collegiate work environment with shared learning and shared partying.

In episode 6, Newmann becomes aware of a mounting threat by investors with seats on the company board of directors after watching news reports about the founding CEO of UBER being ousted.

The series is fast paced with the same tempo WeWork provides clients. Hathaway provides that washy realism of everyday struggles she quite often provides in feature film acting, while Leto creates a unique character to play the creative mind behind WeWork.

Episode 6 of WeCrashed is currently streaming on AppleTV+.