Movie Review – Margin Call (2011)
an american tragedy
During the last months of 2008, most of us witnessed a chain reaction of financial ruin. Seemingly strong investment firms across the country had to declare bankruptcy mainly due to the collapse of the housing bubble and the subsequent loss of value in real estate prices. This caused a change in the economic structure so drastic that it required nothing less than a bailout from Congress. It is this backdrop against which margin call weaves a cold and devastating but very compelling story. By taking place almost entirely within the walls of a New York investment firm, and by having the characters speak almost indecipherable financial jargon, writer-director JC Chandor does something quite interesting: he completely immerses the audience. in the panic and confusion of the period. Making us understand what is really being said is not the point.
As the film begins, the company, which is unnamed but said to be loosely based on Lehman Brothers, has just seen 80% of its employees laid off. One of the casualties is Eric Dale (Stanley Tucci), the company’s senior risk analyst; the opening scene of him, in which he is fired by a crew that fires people for a living, is eerily reminiscent of In the air, and almost equally timely. Just before leaving, he hands a USB drive to a young analyst named Peter Sullivan (Zachary Quinto), who, for now at least, is still an employee, and instructs him (1) to analyze the data and see if he can finish what it started, and (2) be careful. Later that night, when many of the employees are at a bar, Peter plugs the unit in, takes a look at his computer screen, and is immediately disturbed by what he finds. He calls a fellow analyst, Seth (Penn Badgley), who then contacts his supervisor, Will (Paul Bettany), who in turn contacts his boss, Sam (Kevin Spacey). They go back to the office. They are also shocked.
What exactly is on that computer screen? We don’t physically see the data, but we hear a lot of complicated tax jargon trying to make sense of it. Essentially it boils down to this: Your company, as well as the entire market, is headed for disaster. The rest of the film shows an emergency meeting at the office, which will last all night. Other employees, including Jared Cohen (Simon Baker), who easily mocks him, and a top executive named Sarah Robertson (Demi Moore), analyze the data as filled out by Peter and, of course, come to the same inescapable conclusions. In the early hours of the morning the arrival by helicopter of the general director of the firm will take place. This would be John Tuld (Jeremy Irons), who likes to speak in simple, condescending terms and insists that those around him do the same. This includes Peter, who was literally a rocket scientist at one point in his life.
Throughout, most of the characters are defined by intriguing personality quirks. Seth, for example, enjoys speculating on the salaries of his superiors. Neither does he always wait for the right moment to start talking. Alternating between smoking and eagerly chewing nicotine gum, Will doesn’t seem to care how unpleasant his cynicism has made him. It’s funny how you can get so tired of the system and yet remain so comfortable with the lifestyle it has provided. In a scene on the company rooftop, after briefly leaning over the railing and realizing that it’s not about the fear of falling, but about the possibility that you’ll actually jump, he explains to Seth and Peter how easy a salary can be. of $2 million. reduced to just over $100,000. That number, I assume, is the rich man’s version of the poverty line.
All the characters are very well developed, but not in the usual way. We are not made to sympathize with them. I’d wager that most of them aren’t, properly speaking, even human beings. They are not motivated by public service or emotions, but by an instinctive need to keep their business afloat. Irons’ character takes an eerily Darwinian approach to the problem: the company will sell its holdings before the buyers realize they’re worthless. It is not about customer loyalty; it is simply about survival. The really sad thing is not that he proposed such an idea, but that they all resigned themselves to it happening. One scene at the end of the film, a conversation between Tucci and Moore, is startlingly real in this regard.
There are only two instances where emotions get the better of the characters. One involves Seth in a bathroom. The other involves Sam, who is genuinely saddened by his dog’s cancer diagnosis. Thematically, this goes beyond the notion that even soulless corporate drones have the capacity to be selfless; the dog symbolizes scarcity, fragility and even the death of innocence. The final shot, which takes this idea even further, is tragic in more ways than one. margin call it is nothing short of an American tragedy, especially in these times when Wall Street greed and corruption are prominent in everyone’s minds. It will be interesting to revisit this film when the country returns to normal. Will future audiences appreciate that it was done at a time when the economy was in shambles, jobs were hard to come by, and all reasonable attempts at financial reform were fought against?
