Margin Call

By JC Chandor (USA)

Berlinale Competition

There is little doubt that the Wall Street crash from 2008 will be a hot film subject in the years to come, being approached in several productions - documentaries and fiction. None, however, are likely to have such a wide range of characters, from the youngest analyst to the company’s owner, so closely observed, by both the director and the audience, as Margin Call. The magical dream cast starring Kevin Spacey, Jeremy Irons, Paul Bettany, Stanley Tucci and quite a few other you might recognize from the lists of Academy Awards and Emmy winners & nominees, assures that every character has a voice and a story for people to listen to. Even the cleaning lady’s appearance, lasting no longer than 30 seconds, is significant and gets noticed when she’s placed in an elevator in between characters played by Demi Moore and Simon Baker.

Margin Call deals with a critical 24-hour period in an investment firm, in which the leaders of the company have to acknowledge the critical situation they have gotten themselves into, and to act accordingly so that the loss is minimal. However, this comes with a great prize as it has major repercussions on the market and financial industry and at the end of the day everybody has to decide whether they keep their integrity or gain as much money as possible to assure themselves survival resources for what it’s likely to be a disastrous future.

The story is centered on entry level analyst Peter Sullivan (played by Zachary Quinto, who is also one of the producers) and his discovery of the critical situation the firm is in, and then from him, following a hierarchical structure, we are introduced to more and more powerful people and the complex decisions they have to make. One of the smart things about the script is that the higher the level of the boss Peter is addressing, the more we as spectators understand of what is actually happening. The characters adjust the technicality of the speech on a particular subject, according to the level of expertise of the addressee. This makes perfect sense considering the CEO of a company is a manager not an analyst but at the same time it’s a good technique to keep the spectators’ interest.

This is just one of a series of clever decisions taken by writer-director JC Chandor, who seems to have been making movies forever. Margin Call is nonetheless his feature debut, which is quite impressive not only for the number of talents he persuaded to join him only through the quality of his script, but also for the balance he manages to create between them. We got to see an impressive display of acting skills, with the director reinventing and at the same time rediscovering the power of close-ups and medium shots. At no point though are the interpretations theatrical, overdone or unadjusted to the story-telling, which makes Margin Call a must-see with regards to its actor/director relationship, for any aspiring film-makers.