If Oliver Stone's WALL STREET(1987) was the financial masterpiece that illustrated the excesses of the financial world then JC Chandor's smartly written and riveting MARGIN CALL(2011) would be its successor. The entire movie takes place over two days and one sleepless night within an unnamed Wall Street investment firm in a fictionalized retelling of the days just before the 2008 financial meltdown; the film starts with a very subtle bang: a mass firing of employees begins and one of them happens to be the head of the risk department, Eric Dale (Stanley Tucci plays him with a smoldering intensity), despite his protests that he is onto something big, they take away his cellphone coverage and he gets escorted out of the building by security. At the last minute he hands over a memory stick to his protégé, Peter Sullivan (Zachary Quinto) an MIT graduate in rocket science, with a dire warning. That night, Sullivan manages to piece together a puzzle that may very well be a portent to the firm's financial apocalypse. What follows next is a series of meetings and denouements as to whether the entire company will survive and sacrifice their clients or would they take the risk of keeping their toxic assets and hope to weather the storm.
It's an ensemble cast and a very powerful one at that. Quinto's Sullivan is smart and can put the numbers together but he is clearly out of his league on what to do next, since he can no longer reveal what has happened to Tucci (who has been let go and cannot be contacted due to the firm's arrogant incompetence) he then goes to the higher authority, the Brit supervisor Will Emerson (Paul Bettany in one of his best roles in years; Bettany plays Emerson as an amoral realist but with a charm and a coolness that makes him likable). Emerson in turn goes up to his boss, Sam Rogers (the ever reliable Kevin Spacey) and tells him about it; Rogers is the one moral focal point of the entire movie, he for one truly cares about the consequences of saving his own skin, namely he will have to lie to his clients, the very customers who entrusts him with their money, in order to save the company. Spacey plays Rogers as an old, worn down warrior, but still willing to put his morals aside for the sake of practicality- the fact that Spacey also appeared in the preeminent sales movie of the century GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS(1992) makes the impact of his presence more deserving here.
As the film moves up in the chain of command the morality, or the lack of it, becomes even more acute as we meet the higher ups: Roger's boss, Jared Cohen (played by Simon Baker in his best role ever) who happens to be younger than him- Cohen is near the top because he's reptilian and is in it for his ego- he's the closest character to a Gordon Gekko in this movie. Baker's counterpart, who happens to be a woman who was responsible for letting Tucci go is Sarah Robertson (Demi Moore, in what also happens to be her best role ever), a hard as stone corporate boss who just happens to be in over her head. But the man on top, an emaciated vulture named after the true to life last CEO of the now defunct Lehman Brothers is John Tuld (Jeremy Irons). Irons plays Tuld as a man who makes few but important decisions and will stop at nothing to make sure that the firm makes money, regardless of who gets thrown under.
JC Chandor makes excellent use of pacing and suspense and despite on what appears to be a complex storyline set in the world of international finance, is able to make it clear that any layman can understand what is going on and what the consequences will be. There's an ongoing joke within the movie that as the problem gets passed to the higher ups, the less they themselves seem to understand what is going on and consequently, asks that their subordinates explain it to them as if they would explain it to a child or a dog. While this movie may not be to everyone's taste, I would highly recommend it to anybody that wants to know just what exactly happens when one decides to use a bank or another financial institution in Wall Street: you may never trust a financial firm ever again after seeing this.
It's an ensemble cast and a very powerful one at that. Quinto's Sullivan is smart and can put the numbers together but he is clearly out of his league on what to do next, since he can no longer reveal what has happened to Tucci (who has been let go and cannot be contacted due to the firm's arrogant incompetence) he then goes to the higher authority, the Brit supervisor Will Emerson (Paul Bettany in one of his best roles in years; Bettany plays Emerson as an amoral realist but with a charm and a coolness that makes him likable). Emerson in turn goes up to his boss, Sam Rogers (the ever reliable Kevin Spacey) and tells him about it; Rogers is the one moral focal point of the entire movie, he for one truly cares about the consequences of saving his own skin, namely he will have to lie to his clients, the very customers who entrusts him with their money, in order to save the company. Spacey plays Rogers as an old, worn down warrior, but still willing to put his morals aside for the sake of practicality- the fact that Spacey also appeared in the preeminent sales movie of the century GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS(1992) makes the impact of his presence more deserving here.
As the film moves up in the chain of command the morality, or the lack of it, becomes even more acute as we meet the higher ups: Roger's boss, Jared Cohen (played by Simon Baker in his best role ever) who happens to be younger than him- Cohen is near the top because he's reptilian and is in it for his ego- he's the closest character to a Gordon Gekko in this movie. Baker's counterpart, who happens to be a woman who was responsible for letting Tucci go is Sarah Robertson (Demi Moore, in what also happens to be her best role ever), a hard as stone corporate boss who just happens to be in over her head. But the man on top, an emaciated vulture named after the true to life last CEO of the now defunct Lehman Brothers is John Tuld (Jeremy Irons). Irons plays Tuld as a man who makes few but important decisions and will stop at nothing to make sure that the firm makes money, regardless of who gets thrown under.
JC Chandor makes excellent use of pacing and suspense and despite on what appears to be a complex storyline set in the world of international finance, is able to make it clear that any layman can understand what is going on and what the consequences will be. There's an ongoing joke within the movie that as the problem gets passed to the higher ups, the less they themselves seem to understand what is going on and consequently, asks that their subordinates explain it to them as if they would explain it to a child or a dog. While this movie may not be to everyone's taste, I would highly recommend it to anybody that wants to know just what exactly happens when one decides to use a bank or another financial institution in Wall Street: you may never trust a financial firm ever again after seeing this.