Film Review: Margin Call

Director: J.C. Chandor

This is the first film of director J.C. Chandor who also wrote the screenplay and managed to film the entire film within 18 days in New York mostly one floor of an office building. Such a short filming time is usually saved for experienced directors who know how to be efficient in filming but the tight schedule probably helped in pulling in big stars like Kevin Spacey, Jeremy Irons & Demi Moore.

The stars of 'Margin Call'

The film revolves around the stick of dynamite that Peter Sullivan (Zachary Quinto who also produced the movie) finds when his boss (Stanley Tucci who had great praise for the movie afterwards) is made redundant  and gives him some information to investigate before he leaves. There are many superb performances within this movie from the entry level guys of Peter and Seth (Penn Badgley) who is obsessed with discussing how much all the top managers and directors earn each year. Peter pulls back Seth and Will Emerson (played with great cocky swagger by Paul Bettany) to the office from a nightclub late in the evening to show them the oversight in the risk model that could ruin the entire company. The information is shared right up the chain until there is a meeting held at 3am with the board of directors headed by John Tuld (Jeremy Irons).

A clever moment is where Tuld asks Peter to describe the problem in simple terms as if he were a child so everyone knows exactly what has happened but also serves to help explain the problem to the audience who may be struggling with the jargon used. The issue deals with the company exceeding historical levels of volatility used to calculate risk and the excessive leverage used within the company means a downturn in the mortgage market could cause catastrophe. The immediate reaction of the management as they all become involved shows a shocking but all too realistic view of the trading sector at this time as they look to sweep the problem under the carpet to save their own company and more importantly their jobs. The greed is at its peak when people go against principles claiming to need the money as they are so use to the 'high life' of their inflated salaries that they don't want to go back to a world without it. At times its only the character of Peter Sullivan that stops you losing all faith in people doing the ethical thing.

The recurring theme of the movie is one of greed as many characters at the higher level lock heads over who is at fault and who should pay for this mess. The roles of Quinto and Badgley's characters serve as the young enthusiastic workers who are innocent to the back stabbing and greed that the others engage in. A great line by Tuld is 'there are three ways to making a living in this business: be first, be smarter or cheat, and I'm not the most intelligent person'. The film shows that the selfish actions by company executives that bankrupting other companies is acceptable as long as they save their own company claiming to make the money back in the future if they can past the live grenade they have that threatens the company itself. The issue itself is suppose to be loosely based on the crisis at Lehman Brothers and is probably close to the truth in places than you'd like to believe.

The question the film leaves at the end is whether Peter Sullivan has been corrupted into their world? He seems too innocent and conscientious for this hard nosed world but was everybody like this in the beginning of their careers and its case of evolve or die?

Zachary Quinto as Peter Sullivan

Demi Moore plays Sarah Robertson who is the manager of the risk department and the only criticism I would have over casting is that I didn't feel she was right for the role. She was suppose to come across as a real tough cookie after years in the industry but I was never convinced by this in the movie. Its only a small criticism over what is a perfectly crafted film.

4/4 a realistic view beneath the financial meltdown in 2007 which pulls no punches. An absolute must see!