Review of Margin Call (2011) by Thecriticator — 21 Apr 2022

Is this movie supposed to make me sympathize with the banking executives and all the tough decisions they had to make behind the scenes for the financial crisis they were responsible for?

A bald risk manager is unceremoniously fired from his job, you know, assessing risk. Apparently he didn’t forsee the risk of him being fired, or the risk the entire investment bank he works for is about to face financial ruin. He feels jilted. Good. He deserved to be fired. But at the very last minute he stumbles upon a revelation that this big investment is on the brink of complete ruin due to the impending collapse of the mortgage markets, and he’s the only person in the bank that knows it. To recap, this man is fired for being terrible at his job. He knows damning financial information. Nobody else knows, nor cares what he has to say, and what does he do? He decides to hand over this doomsday data to his former colleague to help the bank that fired him! I wouldn't do that. And why would security let him leave in the first place with a thumb drive of financial models? I would've taken that info down the street to a competitor or short-sold all the company stock, yet the film wants to paint the image the fired risk manager was under-appreciated. Moving on, we now have a college intern figuring out the model and taking all the credit for it. And then Kevin Spacey shows up and its just manager drama over who's responsible for destroying the bank? And constantly asking "what time is it?" in every line of dialogue. And everyone has to spend the entire night looking for the fired risk manager to somehow solve the problem. Maybe they were hoping to bring him back to the office to each fire him again. Then Jeremy Irons shows up and that was a good thing. And then Kevin Spacey digs up his dead dog over something related to the financial crisis. And it was in a front yard, who buries in the front yard? And what was Demi Moore doing in this anyway? And then they bring the fired risk manager back. He tells a story about him building a bridge to relate to the events of the financial crisis. I wouldn't walk on a bridge this guy built. And everyone gets fired in the end.