Sunday, November 06, 2011

Margin Call


A film that tries to capture the beginning of the end of the housing bubble, opens with a pink slip day at a major trading firm. One of the employees being laid off turns out to be sitting on something big and soon the unraveling starts. Not a word is mentioned about the reason for the collapse or what the collapse is all about. The films assumes the viewer has seen and heard enough to not bother detailing that aspect. Instead the focus is on the upper management of the firm and how they react to the situation. A calmness permeates the film that can throw the viewer off considering the fact that everyone is panicking but with actors like Kevin Spacey, Jeremy Irons and Demi Moore it is obvious that much lies below the surface. If you go in expecting Wall Street the film will disappoint. However what is portrayed here might be a more realistic view of the unraveling from an individual worker point of view.

Rating: * * +

1 comment:

Wenerd said...

Arguably, the best movie of 2011 for me. Very authentic in terms of the characters you are likely to find in an investment bank and each one of the cast was brilliant I thought. A well written story and fantastically captured. Looking forward to more films from the debutant directior J C Chandor.