This is a taut drama about an investment bank facing the financial collapse of 2008. In his first feature, writer-director J.C. Chandor (whose father worked on Wall Street) successfully creates a pressure cooker of a tale.
The story is compressed into a critical 24 hours in the life of the company. It is set in darkened offices lit only with computer monitors that are gleaming with menacing graphs and spreadsheets.
Stanley Tucci is compelling as the bean counter who discovers an existential threat. Kevin Spacey (also always good) is the corporate lifer who must clean up the mess. Don’t overlook the depth of Paul Bettany’s performance as an amoral and personally empty corporate climber who is in it only for the sport and for the adrenaline, using his bonuses merely to keep score. Finally, in Margin Call‘s most superb performance, Jeremy Irons oozes menacing confidence and power as the CEO who do anything to save his company.
Unfortunately, Chandor cannot create acting range for Simon Baker and Demi Moore, who are out of their depths among the otherwise fine cast.
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2DqFRsPrns]