Rapid Review: Margin Call (2011)

“There are three ways to make a living in this business: be first, be smarter, or cheat.”
– John Tuld

SYNOPSIS: A respected financial company is downsizing and one of the victims is the risk management division head, who was working on a major analysis just when he was let go. His protégé completes the study late into the night and then frantically calls his colleagues in about the company’s financial disaster he has discovered. What follows is a long night of panicked double checking and double dealing as the senior management prepare to do whatever it takes to mitigate the debacle to come even as the handful of conscientious comrades find themselves dragged along into the unethical abyss. – via IMDB

I was so excited for this. I had big dreams for this. I did. I mean, did you see that cast? Wow! Some serious favourites of mine there, and all in one movie? Yes, yes, let me see! Plus, ratings to boot?! On board! Ugh. What a waste. My fiancé passed out within forty minutes, all the while playing card games on his phone because he could not get into this. Me? I stuck it out, hoping for a turning point that just never came, and I think that was more disappointing than anything else. The story was not an easy one to follow, not all of us trade stocks, are insane mathematicians or are rocket scientists, and this film seemed to forget that at the best of times, completely running away with what was happening. I, for one, was majorly lost, though I pieced together what was happening, why, and all that. I was unhappy about it. I love a movie that makes you think. This is not that. This is one of those movies that just makes half the viewers feel like idiots, and that is just offensive. It was a really bland, boring movie overall. The performances were really good, and I kept waiting for Simon Baker to get up to some Patrick Jane shenanigans, which he didn’t, but oh well. Tucci was very good, as always, Quinto is amazing (loved his rocket scientist bit), Spacey dominated, of course… but even with all of these things, this movie did nothing for me. Nothing. What a pity. Especially by the time that I got to the end. Basically nothing happened and I felt like I had been robbed of my time, which was totally not fair, but happens far more often than we would like to acknowledge.