Barrett's Reel Talk

"Margin Call" is a beautiful, severe film about the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

A young man discovers that a major bubble is about to burst; he brings the news to higher-ranking colleagues. Meetings ensue; whom should we blame? Which heads should roll? How can Lehman Brothers minimize its own "health problems" after the disaster?

Amoral Jeremy Irons--ruler of the world, owner of a private chopper--announces a plan. Lehman Brothers will knowingly sell off its worthless assets to interested buyers; there will be some lying. Let ignorant competitors shoulder some of the "hurt."

Throughout all this ugliness, the camera keeps drifting back to Penn Badgley, a minor player, possibly a sociopath, who can pass the time only by asking, "You know that guy on the third floor? The fourth floor? What do you think his annual salary is? The stripper in front of us -- what do you think she makes in one night?"

When Penn Badgley learns that he will lose his own job, he bursts into childish tears, in a bathroom. "This is all I ever wanted to do with my life." A head honcho--Simon Baker--stops shaving and gives a reptilian nod to Badgley. "Really?" he asks, in a clinical way. "Are you serious?" And that's the end of the scene.

I don't really "like" anyone in this movie, but I'm fascinated by tiny details....The pristine white sailing boat on the pamphlet you're handed when you're fired. ("Your Future Awaits....") The distraught man who buries his dog in the yard that belongs to an ex-wife. The dreadful Kevin Spacey "rally" speech after a series of terminations. ("They're gone. You're not. Go out and kill....")

A vivid, haunting dream -- a movie worth seeing. A chance to study dialogue and subtext -- almost non-stop writerly brilliance, scene after scene after scene.

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