Margin Call

Although it purports to give an insight into the financial crisis of recent years, 'Margin Call', unlike the similarly themed 'Too Big to Fail', wraps its moralising up in a fictional tale of greed and deceit. It is more concerned with showing the psychology of the protagonists in that disaster than chronicling the processes at work. While this might be original, this has weaknesses as well as strengths. For one, it's difficult to really care about the pain some of these characters experience when we are all far better acquainted with the after effects in our own lives. Afterall, fictional or not, when these people lose their jobs, they leave with multi-million dollar bonuses. Boo hoo.
'Margin Call' also suffers from what I can only presume is a theatrical origin. It is riddled with two-hander scenes of 'pithy' dialogue. Everything happens in banal rooms, or the back seats of taxis, or the front steps of buildings. Considering the impressive cast - Kevin Spacey, Paul Bethany, Demi Moore, Jeremy Irons, Stanley Tucci, to name a few - this can provide its own pleasures. But it does give a hermetically sealed quality to the proceedings. Considering the huge effects of the financial crash on the outside world, it all seems too limited when simply discussed by a couple of smart, wealthy people.
Interesting, but not nearly as biting as it thinks itself to be.