Margin Call (2011): Follows the key people at an investment bank, over a 24-hour period, during the early stages of the financial crisis. (7.1)
Director: J.C. Chandor
Writer: J.C. Chandor
Stars: Zachary Quinto, Stanley Tucci, Kevin Spacey
I've listened to very understandable explanations about the financial mess on various Public Radio broadcasts, including The Giant Pool of Money story on This American Life. I guess, I expected a good explanation of the problem from the movie but I didn't get it. The story in the movie is compelling, it has drama, it shows the kind of people involved; but if you want to really understand how it happened, you have to look elsewhere. This movie, however, shows the greed, the self interest, and the attitude that says "I want to make my money no matter what." Somebody really should point out that the stock market really is a zero-sum game; for someone to make money, someone else has to lose money. It really is a giant legalized pyramid scheme where people keeping pumping money in the hope that value of whatever they are buying will keep going up in the long run. If that happened to everyone, those who come later basically support those who bought earlier and the cycle continues. Or, I should say the pyramid keeps being propped up. This is on way to run a society. In a microcosm way, we see the fault of this idea in this one company. In that sense this movie is good ... it shows the human side of it all. But it could have been a real mirror to the society and could have asked big questions. Yeah, even the rocket scientists and engineers go and screw the society's financial systems to make mega bucks. My Rating: 6.5
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