A surprisingly polished debut for writer/director J.C. Chandor, Margin Call hurtles quickly through an an investment bank’s day of downfall. Highlighted by a clean look with shades of looming darkness and a tense, crisp script, with small echoes of Glengarry Glen Ross, it is delivered with assurance by a smart, stellar ensemble, memorable from top to bottom. Zachary Quinto, Paul Bettany and Demi Moore shine, Jeremy Irons is deliciously despicable, while Kevin Spacey and Stanley Tucci deliver performances that perhaps rival any in their extremely respectable respective careers. One can feel the tumorous dread growing in the pits of stomachs as these characters’ livelihoods are rendered irrelevant.
The pace moves rather briskly for a dialogue-driven film, especially one so contingent on a very specific field of technical jargon. I am by no means fluent in Street talk. The extent of my financial prowess is limited to what little I picked up during many mornings watching CNBC solely due to crushing on Erin Burnett. But it doesn’t take an expert to follow along, as the film repeatedly, almost annoyingly, has its characters suggest that they speak to each other in layman’s terms, which serves the dual purpose of clarifying the details to the audience as well as laying bare the disconnect of understanding between the decision-makers at the top and the managers and traders who are caught in the crossfire. Even so, I suggest that some basic overview of the workings of the 2008 financial meltdown would be helpful to understanding Margin Call, and if you have the patience for a very dry but nonetheless compelling documentary, 2010’s Oscar-winning doc Inside Job would make for a fitting double-bill.
Margin Call has the odd general arc of a film where a worker from the lower register uncovers a grand conspiracy being perpetrated upon an unsuspecting populace. The result is a case of truth being scarier than science-fiction. Turns out we are not brainwashed or subject to grand machinations involving aliens, popes, or grotesque medical experiments, unless you count having our wallets excised with surgical precision.
2012-1-2 jmm #1
No comments:
Post a Comment