Set in an investment firm not unlike the Lehman Brothers, Margin Call focuses on the 24 hour period in the early stages of the 2008 financial crisis, and documents the responsibilities, decisions and moral dilemmas faced by the players in what could be the genesis of a financial catastrophe.
Margin Call is a film that is perfectly executed, but fails to engage based on its premise, which is decidedly non-visceral to say the least. The script is tightly wound, the performances stellar, the research accurate, but the film keeps its audience at an emotional distance, with neither the character development nor interaction necessary to sustain interest through its 100-odd minutes. Kevin Spacey as middle manager Sam Rogers clocks in an emotionally fine-tuned performance, and the film does a good job of both humanising individuals in the financial sector that are often vilified, as well as satirising the fundamental flaws of the system, such as the inverse relation between one`s income and one`s technical acumen.
Beyond that, however, the film`s theme of the American financial crisis and its engagement with financial jargon over character development may leave laymen high and dry, and the characters, while nuanced, lack the necessary compelling traits to drive this dialogue-driven endeavour.
Margin Call is an intelligent, star-studded film that possesses certain moments of drama, but is often overwhelmed by its fixation with realistic accuracy, and is at times as entertaining as sitting in on a bureaucratic board meeting.
Summary: Slightly reptilian in its detachment, and neither bullish nor bearish.
Rating: 3/5 Raphael Lim
Run time: 109 min