Interesting
Summary
The story can be confusing, but they did a good job of dumbing down a complex narrative, with clever celebrity cameos and a terrific cast.
Plot: Told through separate narratives, a group of different hedge fund managers discover the impending housing market crisis before the 2008 economic collapse.
Review: My day job is in banking, so you would think that I would have greater insight into the content of this film than the average person. Not so. What transpired in 2008 with the economic crisis in the United States, sparked by the failure of bonds backed by subprime mortgages, is as alien to me as it probably is to you. You have to work in stocks, probably the Capital Market division, to get a better handle on just how insane what happened in 2008 was.
That is the main challenge of this movie: to take something complex that would require knowledge in a specific field and dumb it down to a general audience. Did they succeed? Mostly. I wouldn’t say it was a slam dunk. However, this is the best shot you’re going to get to get it explained in a comprehensible way. Using the celebrity cameos to break the fourth wall and explain specific, nuanced terms and scenarios in an easily understandable way was genius. However, it will still require multiple viewings for everything to resonate with the viewer.
A terrific cast helps the story. My favourite was Steve Carell, who plays the constantly angry cynic of the group. He had the best reactions in the movie, and I loved every scene he was in. Christian Bale deserved his Oscar nomination as the eccentric genius who first discovers the housing bubble. Ryan Gosling was perfect as the slimy opportunist. Brad Pitt was understated as the weirdo, moralistic former trader. The rest of the cast is superb, though I don’t know why Karen Gillan took the bit throwaway part as an SEC employee. The cast hit the mark well on everything.
The movie does repeat itself a lot, which means it didn’t need its full 130-minute runtime. There were too many scenes where the hedge managers are constantly befuddled because something isn’t happening that they expected. It’s meant to show just how corrupt the entire banking system is in the U.S., but you can easily guess that well before it happens. I wouldn’t say I was bored, but I did find it repetitive in parts.
As for the camerawork, it was fine, but nothing outstanding. I guess with this sort of movie, they’re not trying to do anything fancy as they’re concentrating on the story, but it seemed anyone could have filmed it. The soundtrack, like most movies, was seemingly non-existent. This movie is billed as a comedy/drama, but it was more drama than comedy, with Carell’s over-the-top rudeness the only place that laughs occurred. You’re going to be spending your time trying to follow the story to care, anyway.
This movie was nominated for Best Picture, and while it’s a fine film, I think calling it a Best Picture contender is a stretch. The movie tries to hit you at times with the human element to vilify the banking system and expound on the horrors of what happened in 2008. Again, it’s fine, but doesn’t need to be stated – I don’t think anyone who deals with the banking system sees them as the good guys. I do laud the movie for being extremely accurate with what happened, though, and with only a couple of liberties, like I said, this is the best you’re going to get with this particular story.