Margin Call Movie Review

Margin Call (2011)

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Written by: J.C. Chandor
Directed by: J.C. Chandor
Starring: Zachary Quinto, Stanley Tucci, Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons, Penn Badgley, Simon Baker, Mary McDonnell, Demi Moore
Rated: R
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Plot
Follows the key people at an investment bank over a 24-hour period during the early stages of the 2008 financial crisis.

Verdict
Despite mostly taking place in an office, this is a gripping drama about a bank that discovers the housing bubble is about to burst. The bank must then decide what they do about it. This movie is really good, better than it should be based on the subject, but the dialog, acting, and directing make this believable and drives the tension. They must act quickly, to either alert others or save themselves.
Watch It.

Review
This was Chandor's first film. I don't know how I missed it. His second movie, All is Lost, is an intriguing movie with very little dialog. His next film, A Most Violent Year confirmed that I was a fan of Chandor and would be sure to watch his movies.

This covers similar ground as The Big Short, just with a narrower focus. A "margin call" is a demand from a brokerage firm to increase the amount of equity in your account. In the case of this movie, the investment bank increased their equity by selling their risky assets.

To be Chandor's first movie, it's impressive. It's clear he had a plan and a confidence in what this movie would be and the mood this creates is the proof.

Kevin Spacey, Zachary Quinto, Penn Badgley play Sam, Peter, Seth

This starts with the firing of risk management director Eric Dale (Stanley Tucci). It turns out the investment company has fire eighty percent of its risk management people. That seems drastic. The question is why. What was Dale working on, and did that project get him canned? On his way out Dale slips the project to Peter Sullivan (Zachary Quinto), Sullivan manages to piece it together and uncover the root problem all in one night, but I guess that's more movie magic for the plot than Dale's incompetence.

Investment banks operate based on historical risk profiles Just the risk management's project future losses would bankrupt the company. It's operating complete outside of historical limits. Outside of those limits, things get bad quickly. Everyone up the chain is called in. This is bad. Did the company know something was up? Why were so many people fired?

It turns out similar concerns had been raised before. Now the clock is ticking. How long until someone else stumbles upon this? Any move this bank makes will send up a flag to everyone else. How do they get out of this with out losing money? This predicament is underscored by Sullivan and his colleague Seth (Penn Badgley) discussing their salary and how they get paid so much for what they do compared to other occupations.

Jeremy Irons plays John Tuld

This movie is technical but engrossing, from the performances to the mood this creates. This bank faces an insurmountable challenge. Do you sell quick to save yourself at the risk of your company's and all the employees' futures by selling something you know has no value to the unknowing? If you're honest no one will buy. The company then goes bankrupt. The company gambled and knew it. Now they want out. As long as owner John Tuld (Jeremy Irons) can mitigate  the losses it doesn't matter if the firm goes down with the employees. He's in this scenario due to reckless spending and they only way out is to spend recklessly. Get the bad assets out and force everyone to comply with big bonuses. Ply them with money. They will sell, crash the market, and lose their jobs, but they will get millions to feel okay with that.

I'm surprised at how engrossing this is. It feels believable which helps, and the dialog and acting is solid. It's well directed and it shows. The bank's decision is logical even if it's morally gray. That's part of the appeal. Both sides of the issue are clear. Often movies fall into the trope of tying everything up with a bow. This movie chooses chaos. The wild thing is that this is based on the housing bubble collapse. Something very similar to this happened. Dick Fuld worked for Lehman brothers, steering the bank deep into subprime mortgages. They filed for bankruptcy after the housing bubble burst.