an american tragedy
During the last months of 2008, most of us witnessed a chain reaction of financial ruin. Seemingly strong investment firms across the country had to file for bankruptcy mainly due to the collapse of the housing bubble and the subsequent loss of value in real estate prices. This caused a change in the economic structure so drastic that it required nothing less than a bailout from Congress. It is this backdrop against which margin call weaves a cold and devastating but very convincing story. By taking place almost entirely within the walls of a New York investment firm, and by having the characters speak almost indecipherable financial jargon, writer-director JC Chandor does something quite interesting: he completely immerses the audience. in the panic and confusion of the period. Making us understand what is actually being said is not the point.
As the film begins, the company, which goes unnamed but is said to be loosely based on Lehman Brothers, has just seen 80% of its employees laid off. One of the casualties is Eric Dale (Stanley Tucci), the company’s senior risk analyst; his opening scene, in which he is fired by a crew that fires people for a living, is eerily reminiscent of In the air, and almost equally timely. Just before he leaves, he hands a USB drive to a young analyst named Peter Sullivan (Zachary Quinto), who, at least for now, is still an employee, and instructs him to (1) analyze the data and see if he can finish it. started, and (2) be careful. Later that night, when many of the employees are at a bar, Peter plugs in the unit, takes a look at his computer screen, and is immediately disturbed by what he finds. He calls a fellow analyst, Seth (Penn Badgley), who then contacts his supervisor, Will (Paul Bettany), who in turn contacts his boss, Sam (Kevin Spacey). They go back to the office. They are also shocked.
What exactly is on the screen of that computer? We don’t physically see the data, but we hear a lot of complicated tax jargon trying to make sense of it. It essentially boils down to this: Your company, as well as the entire market, is headed for disaster. The rest of the film shows an emergency meeting at the office, which will last all night. Other employees, including Jared Cohen (Simon Baker), who easily outwits him, and a senior executive named Sarah Robertson (Demi Moore), analyze the data as completed by Peter and, of course, come to the same inescapable conclusions. In the early hours of the morning, the firm’s general manager will arrive by helicopter. This would be John Tuld (Jeremy Irons), who likes to speak in simple, condescending terms and insists that those around him do the same. This includes Peter, who was literally a rocket scientist at one point in his life.
Throughout, most characters are defined by intriguing personality quirks. Seth, for example, enjoys speculating on the salaries of his superiors. Neither does he always wait for the right moment to start talking. Alternating between smoking and anxiously chewing bits of nicotine gum, Will doesn’t seem to care how obnoxious his cynicism has made him. It’s funny how you can get so tired of the system and yet remain so comfortable with the lifestyle it has provided for you. In a scene on the company rooftop, after briefly leaning over the railing and noticing that it’s not about the fear of falling, but the possibility of actually jumping, he explains to Seth and Peter how easy a salary can be. of $2 million. reduced to just over $100,000. That figure, I suppose, is the rich man’s version of the poverty line.
All the characters are very well developed, but not in the usual way. We are not made to sympathize with them. I’ll wager that most of them aren’t, properly speaking, even human beings. They are not motivated by public service or emotions, but by an instinctive need to keep their company afloat. Irons’s character takes an eerily Darwinian approach to the problem: the company will sell its holdings before buyers realize they are worthless. It’s not about building customer loyalty; it is simply about survival. The really sad thing is not that he proposed such an idea, but that everyone was resigned to it happening. A scene at the end of the film, a conversation between Tucci and Moore, is surprisingly real in this regard.
There are only two instances where emotions get the best of the characters. One involves Seth in a bathroom. The other involves Sam, who is really saddened by his dog’s cancer diagnosis. Thematically, this goes beyond the notion that even soulless corporate drones have the capacity to be selfless; the dog symbolizes scarcity, fragility and even the death of innocence. The final shot, which takes this idea even further, is tragic in more ways than one. margin call it is nothing short of an American tragedy, especially in these times when Wall Street greed and corruption are uppermost in everyone’s minds. It will be interesting to revisit this film when the country returns to normal. Will future hearings appreciate that it was held at a time when the economy was in shambles, jobs were hard to come by, and all reasonable attempts at financial reform were fought against?