I thought this movie would suck. I figured it was basically another Wall Street do-over. And I am often reminded that low expectations are a wonderful thing.
When the movie hit the best of the year lists from many critics, I tried to get it quickly. No luck! Everyone wanted to rent it, and with good reason. It's a claustrophobic little nightmare about the day of reckoning, truly less than 24 hours, at a Lehman type firm. In the middle of the night an analyst realizes that the risk profile for the firm's current portfolio is fucked and the firm is under water. He wakes up his boss, who wakes up his, and by 3AM there is a boardroom full up higher-ups deciding what to do. Their decisions are not pretty. The impact for the individuals involved, the employees, the firm and the entire market is nuts.
Most of the movie takes place in a couple of offices, a conference room, an elevator, a parking garage. It reminds me of a play in that regard, and it works really well here. The director, J.C. Chandor, is a newcomer. We need to pay attention to him. The cast is uniformly great. Stanley Tucci, Simon Baker, Paul Bettany, Demi Moore, Jeremy Irons, Kevin Spacey - usually a movie with this many stars is crap. But not here. Enjoy it.
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