Margin Call (B or 3/4 stars)
'Margin Call' (written & directed by J.C. Chandor) is an intellectual thriller that focuses around the key men at an investment bank over a 24 hr. period during the early stage of the 2008 financial crisis. 'MC' is not a documentary; as not everything is factual. But it certainly incorporates, quite shrewdly, some of the reasons that led to the real crisis. As the film begins, it's lay-off day for a large portion of the brokers in this "Firm". The one's let-go are stellar workers, but the survivors are simply 'better'. The market is looking bad, profits are down, so reductions must be made. One of the 1st casualties is manager Eric Dale (Stanley Tucci), who - right before departing - turns over a personal project to his protege, Peter (Zachary Quinto, Star Trek).
Peter stays behind after work to look at Eric's models, & the results prove disastrous. He's looking at projections that indicate that near-future losses will exceed the firm's market capitalization! Panicked, he calls his best bud, Seth (Penn Badgley), & his boss, Will Emerson (Paul Bettany). As the clock approaches midnight, they return to the office & realize the enormity of what's going on. Calls go out to Will's boss, Sam Rogers (Kevin Spacey); Sam's boss, Jared Cohen (Simon Baker, The Mentalist); & the CEO, John Tuld (Jeremy Irons), who arrives by helicopter at 4 a.m. They all have approximately 2 hours to determine how to unload billions of toxic mortgage securities before they destroy their company. But whether or not they make the deadline could be a moot point.
You know, there's a real sense of verisimilitude (reality) about the way in which this film unfolds. We get to see an eerie glimpse 'behind the curtain' of investment banking. And we see/feel the panic on these mens faces as catastrophe, failure, & ruin closes in on them. 'MC' is not political (thank God). And it's also not judgmental (hard to do when dealing with these 'villains' - brokers). It's mostly a procedural that examines how the problem is discovered; then proceeds to detail how a solution is decided upon. I won't lie and say that I was constantly engaged. Some of the cryptic Wall St. lingo went over my head -- that's more of a J.J. issue than anything else. The tone of the film is also a bit solemn. Chilly is understandable. But solemnity can get overbearing.
The performances are great, all around. And thank God they are, because some of the financial talk & office exposition that they have to convincingly & entertainingly articulate could have bogged things down. In fact, the Jeremy Irons character even asks the Kevin Spacey character at one point to explain things to him as if he were a child (much appreciated). Irons is fantastic as the portentous, high-&-mighty CEO who swoops in to bear bad news. It's the best I've seen him in years. No less impressive is Kevin Spacey as a tired, profoundly wounded man who's worked admirably & given 34 yrs. of his life to a business that'll kick him to the curb. We also feel a degree of compassion for him because he feels worse about his terminally ill dog than he even does about what's happening to his livelihood. It's a subtle, nuanced performance that I haven't seen from Spacey in a while (similar to Irons).
Other portrayals by Paul Bettany (wonderfully cynical), Demi Moore (yes, even her), Stanley Tucci, & Penn Badgley (showing that he can act outside of a TV show) are solid as a rock. And every portrayal strikes interesting notes of humanity (greedy, morally compromised, scared, villainous, empathetic). Critics compare this film to the too-profane-for-me Glengarry Glen Ross because both have an ensemble cast with the same sense of claustrophobic (as in stage play) desperation to make a huge sale. That said, I appreciate this film more. Though I'm not ecstatic about 'Margin Call', it provides a convincing portrait of what it must've been like for these guys when the sh*t hit the fan. The performances are riveting. And it's impressive to get this cast in such a good film for merely a $3.5 million budget.
Peter stays behind after work to look at Eric's models, & the results prove disastrous. He's looking at projections that indicate that near-future losses will exceed the firm's market capitalization! Panicked, he calls his best bud, Seth (Penn Badgley), & his boss, Will Emerson (Paul Bettany). As the clock approaches midnight, they return to the office & realize the enormity of what's going on. Calls go out to Will's boss, Sam Rogers (Kevin Spacey); Sam's boss, Jared Cohen (Simon Baker, The Mentalist); & the CEO, John Tuld (Jeremy Irons), who arrives by helicopter at 4 a.m. They all have approximately 2 hours to determine how to unload billions of toxic mortgage securities before they destroy their company. But whether or not they make the deadline could be a moot point.
You know, there's a real sense of verisimilitude (reality) about the way in which this film unfolds. We get to see an eerie glimpse 'behind the curtain' of investment banking. And we see/feel the panic on these mens faces as catastrophe, failure, & ruin closes in on them. 'MC' is not political (thank God). And it's also not judgmental (hard to do when dealing with these 'villains' - brokers). It's mostly a procedural that examines how the problem is discovered; then proceeds to detail how a solution is decided upon. I won't lie and say that I was constantly engaged. Some of the cryptic Wall St. lingo went over my head -- that's more of a J.J. issue than anything else. The tone of the film is also a bit solemn. Chilly is understandable. But solemnity can get overbearing.
The performances are great, all around. And thank God they are, because some of the financial talk & office exposition that they have to convincingly & entertainingly articulate could have bogged things down. In fact, the Jeremy Irons character even asks the Kevin Spacey character at one point to explain things to him as if he were a child (much appreciated). Irons is fantastic as the portentous, high-&-mighty CEO who swoops in to bear bad news. It's the best I've seen him in years. No less impressive is Kevin Spacey as a tired, profoundly wounded man who's worked admirably & given 34 yrs. of his life to a business that'll kick him to the curb. We also feel a degree of compassion for him because he feels worse about his terminally ill dog than he even does about what's happening to his livelihood. It's a subtle, nuanced performance that I haven't seen from Spacey in a while (similar to Irons).
Other portrayals by Paul Bettany (wonderfully cynical), Demi Moore (yes, even her), Stanley Tucci, & Penn Badgley (showing that he can act outside of a TV show) are solid as a rock. And every portrayal strikes interesting notes of humanity (greedy, morally compromised, scared, villainous, empathetic). Critics compare this film to the too-profane-for-me Glengarry Glen Ross because both have an ensemble cast with the same sense of claustrophobic (as in stage play) desperation to make a huge sale. That said, I appreciate this film more. Though I'm not ecstatic about 'Margin Call', it provides a convincing portrait of what it must've been like for these guys when the sh*t hit the fan. The performances are riveting. And it's impressive to get this cast in such a good film for merely a $3.5 million budget.