Margin Call has a bloody impressive cast, probably drawn by a script which handles the hot topic of “Wall Street Bankers Are Tossers, Aren’t They”. You’ve got your Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Stanley Tucci and Star Trek’s Zachary Quinto leading the charge with Demi Moore, Jeremy Irons, Martin Baker and Mary McDonnell bringing up the year in considerable style. It focuses on a small group of employees of a successful and powerful, 150 year old Wall Street Investment Firm during a 24 hour period on the brink of a major Financial System collapse (2008 springs to mind). While the film is riveting stuff, it’s very static, visually unremarkable and uncinematic to the point where you realise it’s basically a stage play.
If you’ve worked in a big business of any kind, you’ll spot the cutthroat management attitude immediately (Baker/Moore/Irons) as well as the unsuspecting guys at the bottom and the middle management who are trapped between their greed and their conscience (Tucci/Spacey). While there is some tension in the early section as Quinto gradually uncovers the meltdown that’s about to occur it’s traded in for a calmer, more apocalyptic atmosphere as they assess how big a shit is going to hit the fan...and whether the fan will, in fact, survive. Everybody involved in the cast delivers sterling work, especially Spacey as the morality torn manager, but it’s not remarkable enough on any other front to be a credible awards contender come year end.
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