Lloyd Owen and Millicent Wong in ROI Marc Brenner]

AARON Loeb’s twisty thriller explores the ethical minefield of financial investment in health.

ROI opens with a disoriented woman (Sarah Lam) being comforted by her AI refrigerator, aptly named CHILLER. It’s been programmed to offer her stories about May, who, it claims, wanted to be a singer but became a capitalist.

We abruptly shift to May Lee (Millicent Wong), an ambitious Chinese American venture capitalist determined to make her mark. She’s en route (via Hayley Egan’s clever video design) to the Silicon Valley investment fund run by her mentor Paul Mentrose (Lloyd Owen).

Super-rich and smug, Paul professes a desire to “make a difference”, but he’s clearly jaded – running meetings between yoga sessions and juice blends.

May is convinced she’s found her unicorn (a rare, privately held start-up company valued at over $1 billion) when she discovers Willa (Letty Thomas), a rising entrepreneur with an idea that could transform global wellbeing, but only if she secures major investment.

As Willa’s programme advances and the stakes rise, commerce, medicine and egos collide, and the power games begin. Who can be trusted, who will take the upper hand, and who ultimately stands to benefit?

Loeb, a former venture capitalist, clearly knows the terrain, and private funding in human health is a weighty subject. His near-future vision is both credible and deeply unnerving.

ROI educates and entertains in equal measure, serving as a salutary warning about the potential pitfalls – and wider global implications – of relying on venture capital to fund medical research.

Under Chelsea Walker’s taut direction, the trio’s shifting power dynamics keep us guessing and the talented company make a fascinating subject unexpectedly accessible.

Timely.

Until April 11
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