Fascinating and well-told tale of a corporate melt-down with excellent ensemble cast, especially the always-appreciated Tucci as risk manager and Spacey as floor boss. I'm not going to say much more since the one positive change to Imdb is no more ten line rule. The story and the characters are textured and have a very realistic feel to them. It was only after seeing this 1 1/2 times that I realized the real-life context but that's not the point of the picture. It's about corporate lowest common denominator stupidity and chilling selfishness.

I knew this film was something to do with business, but I did remember seeing a television review for it, I must have forgotten the time during which it is set, so I was certainly hoping it would be interesting, written and directed by J.C. Chandor (All Is Lost, A Most Violent Year). Basically set in 2008, during a 24-hour period, at an unnamed respected a Wall Street investment bank, the financial company is forced into downsizing. Among the key players let go is head of risk management Eric Dale (Stanley Tucci), following his departure junior risk analyst Peter Sullivan (Zachary Quinto) works late into the night to finish Dale's project. Sullivan discovers the company's financial disaster, due to excessive leverage, the company's assets could decrease rapidly and the firm will go bankrupt, what follows will turn from panicking to double-checking and double-dealing. Sullivan and fellow junior analyst Seth Bregman (Penn Badgley) tell their desk head Will Emerson (Paul Bettany) about the situation, he alerts floor head Sam Rogers (Kevin Spacey), they attempt to contact Dale, with no luck. The senior executives include division head Jared Cohen (Simon Baker), chief risk management officer Sarah Robertson (Demi Moore), and finally CEO John Tuld (Jeremy Irons), they will do whatever it takes to lessen the force of intensity in this debacle. A series of meetings occur throughout the night, as the news travels up through the ranks, but whatever decisions are made in terms of staff cuts and all business matters, they will have effects and consequences both morally and financially. Also starring Penn Badgley as Seth Bregman and Mary McDonnell as Mary Rogers. The performances by the all-star cast are all great, and the script is full of lots of technical dialogue I honestly don't understand, I certainly don't understand all the components that lead to the 2008 financial crisis, but this is a good story, making the characters humanised, and it feels claustrophobic, all in all it is a worthwhile drama. It was nominated the Oscar for Best Writing, Original Screenplay. Good!

J.C. Chandor's Margin Call sustains a laser focused, wilfully meticulous look at the days leading up to the 2008 financial crash, showing us life within one wall street office building during a nervy period which now no doubt is remembered as the calm before the storm. Various characters in different positions of the hierarchy anxiously brace themselves as the jobs begin to get cut and the dread looms towards them like the inevitable rising sun at dawn. It's set all in one afternoon and night, compacting a far reaching event which spanned years into the microcosm of a single 24 hour window, a tactic which sits through the larger world implications and brings it in for something a little more intimate. Zachary Quinto plays a young trader who discovers a rip in the lining of the economic infrastructure, a precursor to the eventual disaster. I'm not being purposefully vague and cryptic with that, I just don't personally understand all the exact ins and outs of what went wrong back then, and having not the slightest knowledge of wall street jargon, that's the best I can do. He brings this knowledge to his superiors who react in varying ways. Kevin Spacey is a disillusioned big shot who sees his life going off the rails alongside the country's market, and mopes in his swanky office. Paul Bettany is a cocky young upstart who uses casual indifference to shade the bruises he's got from knowing what will happen. Demi Moore is a company head who looks out for herself while others in the company. Jeremy Irons provides scant moments of humour as a bigwig fixer who arrives on a chopper to set things straight, or at least assess the damage. The best work of the film comes from Stanley Tucci (surprise, surprise) as a jilted employee who has been laid off in the confusion, and is seething about it. His melancholic monologue about what it takes to propel America's industry and economy forward resonates with a humanity that cuts deep. The film ticks along with a pace that's both measured and swift, with little time for introspect, yet showing it to us anyway amid the chaos. Watch for appearances from Penn Badgley, Al Sapienza, Simon Baker and Mary McDonnell as well. Chandor let's the proceedings thrum with an inevitability that hangs in the air as the promise of the impending crisis, a feeling that serves to impart not why it happened, not how it happened, but the fact that it did happen, to each and every individual person who was affected, as opposed to the country as a whole.

The movie is a great story about a financial crisis unfolding. The portraying of the problem occurring casually as someone checks out a formula is very nice. The story escalates nicely into shape but still in a great manner of keeping the cool, even though as the people struggle to move around it over the night. What's even nicer is that the movie keeps the cool even after the no-turning-back move has been decided and being taken, with only one character expressing his feeling, in a secretive way. The acting overall is indeed a great one. Zachary Quinto did well in portraying the newbie with concerns. Paul Bettany, Kevin Spacey and Jeremy Irons did great in their roles, depicting the ruthlessness of a boss. Demi Moore, Simon Baker, Stanley Tucci and Penn Badgley completed the movie with balancing character angles