A smart and straightforward drama, Margin Call has a simmering of corporate tension along with a hugely stacked cast.
I hadn’t thought too much about it until watching this, but we don’t get very many cut-and-dry dramatic movies these days. A film where emotions are kept on the backburner and you are essentially watching a math algorithm play out from the beginning to its naturally occurring end. I’m curious if society has moved past that or if small and emotional or large and over-the-top is just where film is at right now. I’m not sure.
Margin Call is a movie about risk assessment workers at a very large firm that are dealing with another round of layoffs. When one supervisor gets fired, he tells one of his employees that he has concerns about a company issue and that the employee should investigate. He does and discovers that this information will put the entire firm, and all of their jobs, in jeopardy.
This drama has an incredibly stacked cast, with stars like Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons, Zachary Quinto, Penn Badgley, Simon Baker, Kevin Spacey, Mary McDonnell, Demi Moore, and Stanley Tucci starring. They each carry their weight and it is primarily an ensemble piece, although a few do have a bit more screen time.
This is a very tight and straightforward film that takes place over the course of about 24 hours. It has a simmering tension that keeps you interested, but not passionately engaged. These people are fantastically rich and under a great amount of pressure to do amazingly shady things to keep their finances healthy.
This firm is essentially a boys club with one token female (Moore’s character) who is tough enough to stand with the rest. Everyone is at risk, so sometimes it is about sacrificing someone else to stay out of the heat yourself.
While much of the movie is fairly emotionless, there are moments where characters break. One young employee, who has always wanted to do the work he’s doing and earn an incredible salary is devastated that he could be leaving. Another mourns the fatal illness and impending death of his dog. But during work time, regardless of the hour, emotions are put away and you are expected to buck up.
I really enjoy that this film does not talk down to the viewer. It takes some time to figure out what is happening and what the specific issue is, but even after hearing the problem being explained as simply as possible, I still didn’t totally understand the intricacies. And maybe you’re not meant to because it doesn’t really matter. What matters is that there is a problem and there are sharks swimming around trying to clean up the blood in the water – or just make sure that the blood belongs to someone else.
There was no emotional connection for me here, but Margin Call is a solid film. It’s interesting and it never wasted my time. A good watch with a stellar cast.
Runtime: 107 minutes
Motion Picture Rating: R
Languages Spoken In The Film: English
Should You Watch It? Yes
Did I Cry? Nope
My Rating: 3.25/5 Stars
Available: Free on Prime Video and Tubi, or may be available for free on other streaming platforms
I hadn’t thought too much about it until watching this, but we don’t get very many cut-and-dry dramatic movies these days. A film where emotions are kept on the backburner and you are essentially watching a math algorithm play out from the beginning to its naturally occurring end. I’m curious if society has moved past that or if small and emotional or large and over-the-top is just where film is at right now. I’m not sure.
