Director exploits avarice

For a thriller, Margin Call shows very little action and climax.

Margin Call is a realistic investigation into the behind-the-scenes turmoil that bubbles inside the pot of an unnamed Wall Street financial titan — the last simmer before disaster boils over.

The film is set in a 24-hour window before the cusp of the 2008 financial crisis. Anyone who’s read the news since then knows what happens: large financial institutions collapse, stock markets crash and global economic recession reminiscent of the Great Depression strikes — no surprises there.

Written and directed by J.C. Chandor, the film leaves the explanation of financial mumbo-jumbo and the investment lexicon to documentaries like Inside Job. This isn’t really a movie about the economic zeitgeist; it’s a human story, a chilling and insightful picture of human greed and guilt.

The movie starts slow and calm, like the eye of a storm before the worst hits. Guys in business suits hunch over their desks, staring intently into screens twitching with numbers and graphs. And then risk analyst Eric Dale (Stanley Tucci) is called in by the human relations department for a talk, in which he is terminated with no explanation.

As Dale leaves the office, he encounters his junior analyst Peter Sullivan (Zachary Quinto, also one of the film’s producers) and slips a USB flash drive into his hand, requesting that Sullivan decrypt some figures he had been studying. Dale’s last words as the elevator door closed in his face: “Be careful.”

Sullivan, once a rocket scientist with a degree from MIT, manages to decode the files, unleashing information about the perilous, unsalvageable financial state of investment firms. It is almost midnight, but he calls his boss, who calls his boss, who calls his boss, who calls his boss. Helicopters chop in, and meetings after meetings ensue. No one sleeps.

The nature of the simplistic plot doesn’t leave much room for beautiful cinematography, steamy romance or action-packed car chases.

Most of the scenes take place behind closed office doors. The writing isn’t anything deep or revolutionary, but much of the thrills here are layered between subtle expressions and business language (other than a smattering of Oh my gods, F-ck mes and F-ck yous).

The entire film is about an organized panic to embellish a wreck that would inevitably stink up the financial world. The only way to make out of it alive is for this group of fiscal chess players to screw others over first, by convincing other companies to buy their spoiled goods at an attractive discounted rate.

Chandor, whose father worked for Merrill Lynch for nearly 40 years, shows a strong fundamental understanding of the personalities and interests of Wall Street figures.

Margin Call delineates a series of different characters and their reactions: the apprehensive junior analyst (Penn Badgley) who binge-drinks and sobs on the toilet; the morally conflicted trading-floor head (Kevin Spacey) who weeps for his dying dog while laying off 80 percent of his staff; his agitated British second-in-command (Paul Bettany) with the 2.5 million salary figure; the ruthless top executive (Simon Baker) who swiftly orders a cover-up; and the eerily calm CEO (Jeremy Irons) who coolly dines on steak and wine while his underlings frantically trick other companies into purchasing the worthless assets.

There is no judgment or condemnation. There are no villains, just fallible greed and ambition. It isn’t clear who the main character is, as there is no protagonist or antagonist.

Each character is allowed a sympathetic and honest representation. The camera reveals the expressions of each Wall Street player, capturing every nervous twitch, stunned brow raise and still trepidation as they grapple with the terrible realization that this is big.

Some intense, expressive moments, however, are slipped in between inert scenes, such as when Sullivan looks out the taxi window at the glittering, bustling Manhattan night and whispers, “Look at those people walking on the streets. They have no idea what’s going to happen, do they?”

Or when CEO John Tuld chews medium-rare steak in the sun-soaked backdrop of city skyscrapers and excuses his unethical decision with a placid, “It’s just money. It’s made up. Just pieces of paper so we don’t have to kill each other for something to eat.”

You don’t need an MBA to understand the drama unfolding in this movie. Margin Call’s exposure of this battle for survival and financial security is nothing new to the audience, and perhaps that’s the greatest feat of this film: the recognition that Wall Street is just a classic dog-eat-dog world.