DIR/WRI: J.C. Chandor • PRO: Robert Ogden Barnum, Michael Benaroya, Neal Dodson, Joe Jenckes, Corey Moosa, Zachary Quinto • DOP: Frank G. DeMarco • ED: Pete Beaudreau • DES: John Paino • CAST: Zachary Quinto, Stanley Tucci, Kevin Spacey
Eric Dale (Stanley Tucci) is one of the many laid off during a massive employee culling at an investment bank on Wall St. in 2008. On his way out, he hands a file on to Peter Sullivan (Zachary Quinto) to look over, and it turns out that Dale was on the verge of discovering that their company, as well as the rest of Wall St. is on the verge of bankruptcy. And so begins this drama set during one 24 hours period set right at the start of the world’s current financial crisis.
The all-star cast (Tucci, Quinto, Kevin Spacey, Demi Moore, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons, Simon Baker, Penn Badgley) makes it easy to keep tabs on who’s who, and while the younger actors can’t quite keep up with the more established actors, a lot of the bigger names bring their A-game, in particular Spacey being the best he’s been in quite some time.
Writer/director J.C. Chandor keeps things ticking along with the pace of an against-the-clock thriller, and while the dialogue can at times be ever so slightly clunky, he does make some interesting insights, such as the general belief that the higher up the corporate ladder you go, the nicer the suits, the more cutthroat you are, and the less you seem to actually know about your own company.
While it doesn’t quite reach the giddy highs of Glengarry Glen Ross or All The President’s Men, it is the kind of smart and well-acted grown up film you see less and less of these days, and exactly the kind of film Wall Street 2 should have been.
Rory Cashin
Rated 15A (see IFCO website for details)
Margin Call is released on 13th January 201
