Anna Gunn in Equity (Sony Pictures Classics)

Movies have long depicted the proverbial shark tank of the financial world, but Equity might mark the first time women are both the swimmers and the sharks. One particularly telling scene occurs early on. The principal character, Naomi (Anna Gunn), a rock-star investment banker who has taken more than her share of tech companies public over the years, explains what motivates her during a women-in-business panel. “I like money,” she says matter-of-factly, kicking off a speech reminiscent of Gordon Gekko’s in Wall Street. But as it turns out, the job isn’t just about the money to Naomi; she likes the power and influence, too.

However, in the high-stakes environment she works in, it takes more than hard work to attain the keys to the kingdom—or to keep them. Naomi’s reputation recently took a hit after one client bailed on her, finding success with the competition. That incident, as well as the question of why it happened, continues to swirl around Naomi, compromising her chances of landing a much-coveted promotion. When she confides her problems to her beau, Michael (James Purefoy), a stock trader who also works at her firm, his answer is for Naomi to go through her Rolodex, find the company she could take public in the biggest deal, and make it happen. Soon, she and her trusty young right hand, Erin (Sarah Megan Thomas), are seated across from the CEO of Cachet, which specializes in impenetrable social networks, and toss around billion-dollar stock valuations.

Unfortunately for Naomi, her ticket to the C-suite becomes compromised from multiple angles. It’s fitting that the crux of the deal is super-secure social networks that may not be as ironclad as originally presented, since that would also be an apt description for her personal and professional relationships, which start to show strain. When Erin, who has already complained about being undercompensated, gets an opportunity to better herself, she takes it, even if it threatens to damage her boss’s deal. Meanwhile, Samantha (Alysia Reiner), an old college friend of Naomi’s, pops back into her life, though the reunion is made awkward by the reveal that she’s an investigator for the U.S. attorney’s office and seems keenly interested in Naomi.

Then there’s Michael who, as it turns out, constantly breaches the wall between the deal-making side and the trading side of the firm. Michael, feeling pressure to provide inside information for an old friend (Craig Bierko) who runs a hedge fund, starts asking Naomi about complications that could cause Cachet to go public at a much lower-than-anticipated stock price. With all of this deception bubbling up from places in Naomi’s life where she least expects it, we start to understand why one of her most prized possessions would be an exotic pet fish, glimpsed swimming alone in its tank. Like that fish, Naomi is a rare commodity—a successful career woman in a male-dominated industry—but also highly visible, isolated, and potentially vulnerable.

Plot machinations aside, Equity is an engrossing drama and character study which, as previously mentioned, looks at the financial world from a distinctly female point of view. Three of its four main characters are women, but director Meera Menon and screenwriter Amy Fox do not portray them merely as men in pencil skirts and pants suits. For Naomi and Samantha, they have made decisions about having children, work and career balance, etc., and the film is sympathetic about how such choices are a recurring echo in their lives.

Erin, by contrast, is pregnant and seemingly in the midst of finding her way, albeit painfully at times. In one darkly hilarious scene, she is undergoing an ultrasound but cannot tear herself away from her Blackberry to see the image of her soon-to-be child. Her pregnancy, meanwhile, only enhances the tension between her and Naomi, as the latter cannot help but reflect on not having a child. At one point, Naomi even asks a former mentor whether he would have fired her had she become pregnant during her more nascent years. (It’s a question she claims to know the answer to, no matter what he says.)

The film also touches on issues of ageism and male privilege, with Naomi treated rudely and dismissively by the higher-ups of Cachet, who are a generation younger, and Michael seemingly finding more and better opportunities dropping into his lap, despite being the same age or possibly older than her. Michael eventually becomes more of a convenient plot device than a multidimensional character, which weakens the film overall.

Still, just as it’s a relief that women can now talk openly about liking money, it’s heartening to see them playing ruthlessly and cunningly in the financial world, a game men have long dominated. By film’s end, the field isn’t quite even, but it’s getting there.