Margin Call

Margin Call Several years ago, unbeknownst to me at the time, I had lunch with one of the foremost investors of the 20th century. When one of my friends had seen with whom I had lunch, he rushed to ask me questions, specifically about money. "Did he tell you how to invest?" and so forth. "No, no he didn't. Money did not enter our conversation once." One might say that the conversation had been on spirituality. Specifically, we talked about what we can know about God and what can be learned about God through many religions. Money for this man, in my brief encounter with him, was not why he lived. At least not at that point in his life.

In an important conversation near the end of Margin Call, the cormorant owner of this investment group has these words to a disillusioned, surly stock pusher, a man who felt, in the words of Hugo, "the perpetual plaint of a soul in agony": "It's just money; it's made up. Pieces of paper with pictures on it so we don't have to kill each other just to get something to eat. It's not wrong." His words ring as truth, a thought uttered by many of the saints of the world: money is nothing. And those who devote their lives to it become nothing. That much is consistent with all the world's major religions. But his words also ring as platitudinous, for that man had clambered all his life for money and there was no regret or turning from this idol. This man and the man with whom I shared lunch were not of the same ilk.

Margin Call, like Wall Street II and Company Men, is placed in the troublesome days of early Autumn, 2008 when the world's economic bubble was ready to burst. Each of these movies has tried to capture the greed that led up to the financial collapse, but none has been as successful as Margin Call. Why? Precisely because in the other two movies, we are given characters that the hoi polloi, the occupant 99%, are supposed to hate. The motivation with their main characters is personal greed. Margin Call is not so simplistic, and so, much more believable. The film is at its finest when developing the complex characters involved in this fictitious histo-drama. We get to know seven characters very well, a feat in itself for a movie of this length. And for each, our initial impressions are not our final impressions. The movie, in that sense, is shocking. A man we believe to be a terrible villain in the opening scenes, we will come to pity at the end. Because at the end, we see that the Jewish vision of labor has triumphed over the Roman view, which has since been adopted by the West, sadly, and to the detriment of culture and charity. This character brings us there, the place where button pushing is replaced by heart-breaking, back-breaking work. The entire cast is formidable and impressive except Demi Moore. She gives an encore performance to Disclosure, which is equally as bad. She doesn't deserve to be in another film.

Is this a movie about money? Only in form. In substance, it is a movie about our own motivations in life. By examining the motivation of others, their raison d'être, reason for being, it gives each of us a good opportunity to re-examine what motivates us. And I hope we will be able to move past money, obviously, but even past building bridges and digging holes. Our reason is far greater than our work of this sort. Only when our work is solely a work of love has our reason become exalted and pleasing. 8/10

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I appreciate your review, but I hate them. they suck

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I really don't mind long reviews, it just seems like your reviews have more of an agenda behind them than actually reviewing movies. it's really not a big deal

Because you hurt my feelings.

i'm glad you guys could bond over this seriously. I'm glad I started the thread. if it can just help 1 person.....

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I really don't mind long reviews, it just seems like your reviews have more of an agenda behind them than actually reviewing movies. it's really not a big deal

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I like his reviews - though I'm typically left wondering whether he actually saw the movie he is supposedly reviewing, or whether his "review" is even about any movie at all.

I particularly liked this line:

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A man we believe to be a terrible villain in the opening scenes, we will come to pity at the end...This character brings us there [the triumph of the Jewish view of labor over the Roman one], the place where button pushing is replaced by heart-breaking, back-breaking work.

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It was a pretty flick man. Good acting, solid job of keeping tension and suspense. And I will agree with TulaneLSU when he says this is probably the most realistic movie on the economy bubble. So realistic, it can be a little difficult to keep up if you don't really pay attention.

I'll admit, I didn't read tulane's review of this movie until just now and it's not a bad review. Some unnecessary stuff but not bad

I just watched this, and it really is not that good. The acting was good, but there was no suspense. They did not fully involve the ramifications of what they did that day. They kept it too internal. There are a lot better movies about this than this one. Most notable being too big to fail.

It's a good movie but just not as good as you want it to be. I think the film's downfall is it's 24 hour time frame. You crave to see the aftermath of the economic holocaust the characters created but you never do.

Still worth seeing. 2.7 stars out of 4