In the wee hours of the morning sometime in 2008, Peter Sullivan (Heroes Zachary Quinto, this time sans Spock ears or the ability to telekinetically cut people's foreheads) takes the USB drive given to him by his fired boss Eric(Stanley Tucci) and opens the report that he had been working on leading up to his termination. What Sullivan discovers is terrifying--the firm is on track to sink big time if their trading continues at its current rate and they will owe much more than they are worth. Yes, this is a dramatization of the hours leading up to the 2008 financial crisis; yes, this takes place at a mortgage securities firm; and yes, by dumbing it down for those of us who know less than nothing about finance, it makes a hard and confusing topic not only understandable, but kind of exciting as well.
From the minute Sullivan figures out the implications, the clock starts ticking to get out fast and save their futures/asses. The news is so huge that it gets all the way to Sullivan's boss's boss's boss's boss in a matter of an hour or less. He calls his buddy Seth (Gossip Girl's Penn Badgley) and his supervisor Will (creepy albino priest vengeful angel Paul Bettany) back in so that they can give him a second opinion. They proceed to hit the panic button and in comes Will's boss Sam (Kevin Spacey) and Sam's boss Jared (Simon Baker) and eventually, via helicopter, everyone's boss John (Jeremy Irons). No one is quite ready to dole out the blame, nor are they ready to give up their Grey Goose and Porsche convertible lifestyles. While Will and the youngsters go off to track down Eric at his Brooklyn home in an attempt to re-hire him, the higher-ups buckle down and try to plot their escape plan. Most conflicted is the veteran Sam, who knows that John and Jared are essentially asking him to put together a fire sale of worthless properties. First-timer J.C. Chandor nails the nuances, partially because his father worked at Merill Lynch for 30 some-odd years. There are some truly amazing shots of New York from their world above the plebes, and while John eats his world-class breakfast just like any other morning, Sarah (Demi Moore) gazes out onto the skyline as if it was a series of giant glass and metal dominoes. The movie falters a little in that it has an emergency board meeting or two too many; it resonates most in the one-on-one conversations. The cast is great (Kevin Spacey and Jeremy Irons? Come on!) and the dialogue generally flows. Margin Call is interesting, but more than that, it is important. Audiences will feel conflicted. On the one hand, we get a close look at the selfish pricks that allowed this to happen and chucked us into this mess. And on the other hand, we get to see that these selfish pricks are also quite human.
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