Three
weeks ago I saw a movie about politics, a profession that completely
confuses me, that I gave a very good review due to the acting and story.
Just like the movie, "The Ides of March", the movie I saw this
afternoon, "Margin Call" is entertaining, has a first rate cast and a
good screenplay though I admit that I understand less about Wall Street,
stocks and bonds than I do politics and am not ashamed, though I
probably should be, to admit I don't even know what the term 'margin
call' even means. I would have to see this movie a couple of more times
to understand what all the manipulations were about but it held my
attention from beginning to end.

I seem to be in pretty good company as John Tuld (played expertly by Jeremy Irons) has to have explained what is
happening to his company and he is the boss. He asks that the situation
be explained to him slowly, as if he was a child or a Golden Retriever.
It seems no one, at any level of management, understands what is going
on, including Sarah Robertson, (Demi Moore), who is behind the whole scheme.

The film opens with Eric Dale, (Stanley Tucci), being fired and his handing off a USB Drive to Peter Sullivan, (Zachary Quinto) an analyst who works with Seth Bregman, (Penn Badgley), both answering to Will Emerson, (Paul Bettany) who, in turn, reports to Sam Rogers, (Keven Spacey), with Sam answering to Jared Cohen, (Simon Baker), and Tuld at the top of the mountain.

This
all takes place 24 hours before the fall of the economy in 2008 and it
is Peter who discovers that the company is, and has been, selling
something that has no value and the company's assets are worthless.
Working all night a solution is reached that will end careers, mostly at
the lower lever, people 'only' making a quarter of a million dollars a
year, soon to be followed by some a few steps higher on the ladder but
the top management personal surviving unscathed. Sarah is paid handsomely to take the fall and Eric is brought back to, as he says, sitting in a room making $176,000 an hour to not say anything.

The cast is uniformly excellent whether it is Paul Bettany telling exactly how he spends his $2 million plus income a year to Demi Moore in a modest role. While there are no heros or villains in the movie Zachary Quinto comes the closest to the former giving a strong performance and Jeremy
Irons, just because of the fact he is the boss of the company fills the
latter role convincingly. Kevin Spacey gives the strongest performance
as a man who has worked for the company for thirty-four years and has a
moral problem to answer.

The
cinematography of a sparkling New York at night as seen from 'the top of
the world' city towering office buildings is stunning and the direction
by J. C. Chandor, who also wrote the screenplay, is sharp except for a few minor missteps here and there.

"Margin Call" is definitely worth seeing.