Directed by: J.C. Chandor
Starring: Kevin Spacey, Jeremy Irons, Paul Bettany, Zachary Quinto, Demi Moore, Stanley Tucci, Simon Baker, Penn Badgely, Mary McDonnell
As Margin Call opens, dozens of people exit the premises of a Wall Street investment firm with belongings in hand and frowns of uncertainty on their faces. They just joined the ranks of the unemployed, and in 2008 on the eve of an historically terrible economic turndown, those still working at the firm had no idea things would get substantially worse in the next 24 hours. Or maybe they had an inkling. A risk manager who was among those coldly terminated (Tucci) was in the middle of tracking numbers and statistics which eventually revealed that the firm's portfolio isn't on solid ground and is putting the firm's future at risk. Many other firms found themselves in the same boat as it turns out.
Margin Call is an absorbing microcosm of how and why the 2008 recession occurred. The firms invested in shaky investments, assets, and mortgages for years. There were warnings of potential issues with the bonds, but since everyone was making money, no one noticed or cared. They would worry about what happens when the bottom drops out later. Later arrives quickly, and soon the executives at the firm are holding meetings in the middle of the night trying to decide how to get out from under these ticking time bombs. Their solution is cold, simple, and may spell the end of the firm: Sell off the bad assets to suckers, rake in the quick bucks, and skedaddle. A few executives will stick around, but most of the staff and middle management will be gone. The firm's CEO John Tuld (Irons) makes it clear his loyalty lies with the money and not the people.
Margin Call was released in 2011, three years after the recession began, but it tells its story in the now without the benefit of hindsight. The executives knew what this all meant for their future, but still had to convince what remained of the sales force to sell this junk off as quickly as possible. There were one-off bonuses handed out to those who sold their portfolios, but there won't be anymore where that came from. Margin Call tells its story with chilling realism and ice water in its veins. The character who engages our sympathy (as much as possible) is Spacey's Sam Rogers, whose dog is dying and hesitates a bit when asked to engage in outright fraud. Other executives, like trading manager Will Emerson (Bettany), his boss Jared Cohen (Baker), and Tuld himself simply accept reality with morality be damned.
Irons' Tuld behaves and makes decisions in much the same manner as many CEO's did in 2008. He isn't there to gladhand people or make friends. He is there to limit the firm's exposure and serve up a head to the board of directors, which in this case is analyst Sarah Robertson (Moore), who warned her bosses the prior year of potential trouble. Tuld tells Sarah, "I would appreciate it if you wouldn't fight me on this," which translates to: "You're done. Pack your shit and don't come back," Many others would hear the same thing more or less that day and in the months to come.
The performances are never less than authentic and we never sense the characters don't know what they're talking about. Tuld asks his underlings what they think they should do about their assets, but it is clear he knows the answer already. The firm in this film is fictional, but make no mistake, the situation and its aftermath are eerily real, played out amongst boardrooms all over the world...to this very day. As Tuld astutely points out to Sam, we had so many depressions and recessions in the past century or so that we can't be naïve enough to believe this will be the last one. People will always want to take shortcuts to get rich quick and stay rich as long as possible. It is a pattern which never changes, because human nature never changes. Until the next time bomb, people will blindly go along.
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