by NEVIL GIBSON
The global financial crisis has prompted a less than robust response from Hollywood. Perhaps it’s a case of biting the hand that feeds — film production is expensive, and the biggest studios are among Wall St’s most powerful corporates.
That said, Hollywoood is always prepared to put its financial instincts to one side when chasing the box office dollar. Consequently, most depictions of business are typically stereotyped and rarely flattering.
Documentary makers were first off the rank with an explanation of Wall St’s role in the money market meltdown that began with the mortgage market in 2008.
Charles Ferguson’s Inside Job, recently shown on Sky, was eager to point fingers at those responsible, while an HBO film, Too Big to Fail, also seen on Sky, followed up with a reconstruction of that fateful weekend in September 2008 when Wall St was threatened by total collapse.
It was averted only when the combined forces of the US Federal Reserve and the major Wall St banks emerged with a deal that saw one major investment bank fail (Lehman Brothers) but others gobbled up.
That result remains in place today, although it hasn’t stopped the wave of outrage around the world — and sparking the Occupy Movement — at the banking system and its practices.
Although the financial crisis has moved on to Europe, this has not meant any lessening of criticism aimed at Wall St. It has mainly come in a series of books and a legislative programme that has curbed the worst excesses.
But it has taken until now for a film to show the inner workings of how over-lending of “sub-prime” — or high risk — mortgages brought the financial system to its knees.
Margin Call (Becker Film Group) recreates a fictional 24 hours during which an unnamed institution discovers the value of its mortgage portfolio is vastly overstated and, in fact, may be worthless, thus making the firm insolvent.
The plot concerns the tensions over how to liquidate those holdings to prevent a collapse and an ethical dilemma of selling what, in polite terms, could be described as damaged goods.
The need for urgency as well as secrecy was paramount, as none of the buyers — meaning other financial organisations — should realise they were being cheated before it was too late.
Despite the low budget and writer-director J. C. Chandor’s first feature film, he has roped in some big names: Kevin Spacey, Jeremy Irons, Stanley Tucci and Demi Moore, as well as other talented actors. It is hard to fault any of this ensemble cast, who spend most of their time in or around their high-rise Manhattan office, fielding phone calls and holding crisis-level meetings.
The adrenalin quota runs high and, apart from a few spasms of introspection, little time is left for motivation or morality as the dirty job of damage control proceeds.
Most impressive is how credible this is, while few recriminations attach to the characters. This cold-blooded objectivity may unsettle some viewers, who have no reason to sympathise with any form of financial skulduggery.
Mature audiences; 105 minutes.