Margin Call

Movie Name: Margin Call

Year of Release: 2011

Director: J.C. Chandor

Stars: Kevin Spacey, Zachary Quinto, Jeremy Irons, Stanley Tucci, Paul Bettany, Demi Moore, Penn Badgley, Simon Baker, Mary McDonnell, Aasif Mandvi, Ashley Williams

Genre: Drama

Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 7

Synopsis:

"Margin Call" follows the story of a group of characters who are brought together, by a meltdown in an Investment Bank. The film introduces us to a large corporation that is going through a series of layoffs. One of them is Eric Dale, a senior analyst, who before leaving warns one of his employees that he's been working on a big project that is important for him to finalize. This employee, Peter Sullivan, finishes that project, and much to his shock, verifies that the company itself is in serious problems. In order to salvage the situation, a series of important players are brought in to tackle the ordeal.
J.C. Chandor in his first feature, builds a film that is pertinent, suspenseful and dramatically powerful, anchored in some great performances from a strong cast. The film uses the ripple effect of how a company and the decisions that a few take, can destroy the economy of a country (and ultimately countries). The story is a thinly veiled representation of how the economic meltdown of 2008 came to take place. The high risks of finance, mortgages, which can hardly be considered dynamic, create a sense of impending doom in the film, as the hours pass by and the players that are brought in assess the situation in order to salvage what can be saved. The cast is uniformly great, but special highlight goes to Kevin Spacey and Jeremy Irons, both of whom are superb as the opposing faces of the same quarter. A good film worth watching!