They are completely left behind in their own world, which somehow got out of control. I think the absence of a musical score also contributes to the sterility of the proceedings. There are a few flaws with Chandor's observant screenplay, for example, the overly analogous scenes of Rogers dealing with his dying dog and a rooftop scene that plays up Emerson's nihilistic nature too predictably. 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. Follows the key people at an investment bank, over a 24-hour period, during the early stages of the 2008 financial crisis. It's like the best movie I've seen in a little while. One widely held position is that eventually bankers themselves didn't understand their own system and products with Derivatives and Futures, etc.
Mary McDonnell has a brief and frankly unnecessary scene as Rogers' ex-wife, and I didn't even recognize the usually hilarious Broadway personality Susan Blackwell as the hatchet woman in the opening scene. Comparatively less impressive but playing their more predictable roles fitfully are Penn Badgley as Sullivan's younger, overtly money-obsessed colleague Seth Bregman; Paul Bettany as Dale's nihilistic, snake-oil salesman of a boss, Will Emerson; and Simon Baker as the most morally despicable executive of the bunch, Jared Cohen. . Cohen suggests that they sell off the assets before the market becomes aware. In addition, some scenes play either too murkily or too clinically to achieve the precise dramatic effect they should. Many scenes in this movie deal with very little dialogue, instead the body language and the unique atmosphere speaks for itself.
Set at a Wall Street firm on the night in 2008 when the leaders realize that changes in the market will wipe them out if they don't immediately stop selling the products that have been making them all rich, the movie centers on the moral dilemma - recognized by some characters but dismissed by others - that they face in unwinding their positions, saving themselves but shifting the pain to others. When they are sitting in their conference room and discuss the incident, it feels somewhat grotesque. What happens after this discovery is a series of sharply intense clandestine confrontations with each level of higher-ups recognizing the ramifications of the inevitable disaster, each one far more nuanced in character than we are used to seeing in films from Oliver Stone about greed and immorality. It packs a powerful punch. Central to the movie's success: 1 It gets across the essence of what is going on in the financial markets without bogging us down or dumbing it down 2 finding a moral question that can be resolved in a night, yet which is nevertheless a perfect allegory for the whole set of moral questions raised by an economy that works the way ours does, rewarding false confidence, recklessness, and deceit as often as industry, skill, and integrity 3 the placement of young, innocent but perceptive characters at the center of the drama, who function as our eyes and ears, who are like stand-ins for all of us who weren't there, at the heart of the dream machine, when the latest fantasy of easy wealth was exposed as a collective delusion 4 really 'gets' the trader ethos and manner - they are a kind of warrior caste, foul-mouthed, impulsive, deeply selfish, surviving by their ability to outplay their counterparts, and yet living by a warrior code that sets boundaries on what they will and will not do to one another having spent three years on Wall Street several panics ago, it rang as true as any movie I have seen on the subject It's like Mamet, except you don't have to work as hard to figure out what everyone's up to.
The ensemble is just brilliant, especially Kevin Spacey and Jeremy Irons. In other words, the projected scenario means the firm will soon owe a lot more than it's worth, and the market will be on the verge of an apocalyptic meltdown. Blessedly, Chandor doesn't stoop to the customary stereotypes in this corporate cage match, but what he does manage is capture the moral compass underneath each player by way of a cast that really delivers the goods with powerfully implosive performances. So there are no villains in this movie, just people, richly drawn, beautifully acted characters realized by some of our best actors who relish the opportunity to show what they can do given a killer script and enough screen time between lines to actually be the people they are portraying. One of the first to go is their boss, Eric Dale Stanley Tucci. 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.
Chandor's effort set on the eve of the 2008 financial crisis , it is very cold indeed with 80% of the trading floor being let go. Tucci is excellent in his smallish role as Dale and gets to show off his resigned character's engineering aptitude with a brief monologue about building a bridge. Hell I would go see him revive Mother Goose, after this debut. A great cast with splendid performances. 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. One of the film's more pleasant surprises is Demi Moore in cool, brisk form as Sarah Robertson, the top risk officer and lone female executive who knows her career is at stake with the discovery of this folly. Reality intervenes, fear takes over, and the 'survivor' is the guy who first reaches the lifeboat.
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. Either are these women robots or have never experienced something like social warmth. 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. It's like Chinatown, except the 'crime' is something far worse than molesting a single young girl. What I like especially about the movie is the fact that it doesn't try to explain the technical causes of the Financial Crisis but the psychological causes - human failures, which are the real cause for the Crisis: greed, egotism, ignorance. As stated above the actors make a big difference.
The effect is a very clever one: The life of these bankers seems totally severed from the outside world, they have no real connection with normal people and seem to speaking exaggeratingly lack an understanding of real human values, that there could be more behind life than just maximizing and making money. Storyline: 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. But then again it's not as if this didn't happen one way or the other. Almost hilarious, but sadly true is the fact that many people in these companies seem to have no understanding of Economics and just got into their position due to influence or money. Internally, it becomes a play for power when several key members realize that someone must take the fall for the plot, which will destroy careers forever. 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. The movie works solely from inside the nameless firm apart from minor steps outside.
Festival releases where I saw it too and the general good response made that an easy decision. 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. Awards: Nominated for 1 Oscar. 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. But one can also witness the cold-blooded atmosphere in the system itself, where every person could easily be mistaken as a number.