Jesse Kornbluth suggests if you are going to binge-watch Kevin Spacey, watch Margin Call.
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In 2005, I interviewed Kevin Spacey and saw, close up, his immense power to grab and hold your attention. Give him a part that allows him to break the world speed record for ambition and evil, and you’ve got an actor who’s a worthy successor to iconic actors like Nicholson or De Niro. The problem with Hollywood is its tendency to milk that simple-minded equation of actor and role. As a result, you go to a movie to watch, say, Jack Nicholson play Jack, not to get caught up in the drama.
When was the last time Kevin Spacey played against type? ‘Margin Call.’ Here he’s a decent guy. Someone plays the ‘Kevin Spacey’ role, but it’s not Kevin Spacey. So if you’re coming off the binge and want more of the flavor-of-the-month, here you go. If you want to see a financial crisis from the inside, ditto. And if you just want a well-written, well-acted thriller, get the popcorn and pull up a chair…
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The first great thing about this nail-biter of a movie is that there are no easy-to-spot villains. “Something big is going down,” the poster announces. It’s a brutal pun: A great Wall Street firm is on the verge of collapse. Terrible things will happen — this is Wall Street, where clients have become “counter-parties” and it makes perfect sense to bundle a bunch of crap, tie a ribbon around it and hawk it, even as you are selling it short in the firm’s account because you know it’s going to crash and burn. So what? The “counter-parties” are adults. [To buy the DVD from Amazon for $5.49, click here. To buy or rent the video stream, click here.]
Spacey has been at the firm for three decades. He’s been successful — to a point. But compared to the lords of the firm, he’s middle management.
What he’s asked to do is dreadful. It will take a heavy toll on the firm and its employees. And, as we see, on him.
Stanley Tucci and Simon Baker and Demi Moore give impressive performances. To varying degrees, they care. Jeremy Irons, head of the firm, doesn’t:
So you think we might have put a few people out of business today. That it’s all for naught. You’ve been doing that every day for almost forty years, Sam. And if this is all for naught, then so is everything out there. It’s just money; it’s made up. Pieces of paper with pictures on it so we don’t have to kill each other just to get something to eat. It’s not wrong. And it’s certainly no different today than it’s ever been. 1637, 1797, 1819, ‘37,’ 57, ‘84, 1901, ‘07, ‘29, 1937, 1974, 1987— and whatever we want to call this. It’s all just the same thing over and over; we can’t help ourselves. And you and I can’t control it, or stop it, or even slow it. Or even ever-so-slightly alter it. We just react. And we make a lot of money if we get it right. And we get left by the side of the road if we get it wrong. And there have always been and there always will be the same percentage of winners and losers. Happy foxes and sad sacks. Fat cats and starving dogs in this world. Yeah, there may be more of us today than there’s ever been. But the percentages — they stay exactly the same.
This is a film for grown-ups (and their smarter kids). For viewers who don’t need white hats and black hats, unsullied saints or satanic sinners. So gather the clan, microwave some popcorn and watch closely.
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Originally published at Head Butler