The meltdown starts when in the midst of a round of
cost-cutting redundancies Eric, a senior
risk analyst is laid off and as he is being immediately escorted off premises,
he passes a USB drive to Peter one of his younger colleagues who has still got
a job. His parting words are to tread
very carefully with the information that it contains, and he does. Whilst the rest of the staff on his Trading
Floor adjourns to a Bar after work, Peter remains at his desk to study the data
on the disk. What he discovers totally freaks
him out, and he calls a workmate to insist that he, and Will their Boss come
back to the Office immediately.
Once there they quickly realize that Peter’s discovery
is potentially catastrophic, and so Will calls his boss Sam, who in turns calls
Jared the CEO, who the informs John Tuld the Chairmen who immediately flies in
by helicopter to take control of the situation.
It is now almost 4 am in the morning, and the Chairmen
surrounded by all the Senior partners,
demands that Paul tell him exactly what all the fuss is about, and he
insists that he does it in plain simple English so that he can grasp the
situation. His job he stresses is to
manage the Corporation, but not necessarily understand its business.
Essentially the mortgage-based securities that they
have been holding as part of a complicated moneymaking scheme have lost so much
of their value they could bring the Company down in one foul swoop. There is not a moment to lose if it is to survive. It is up to the Chairman to make the margin call. In other words to order his Company to start
dumping these worthless holdings before the truth gets out, even if this means
completely betraying their customers. He
doesn’t hesitate for a single moment, as he decides that his is their survival
plan and that he will also find a scapegoat to take the blame. He is unshakably
ruthless and without feeling for people, and just keeps repeating, there is
no choice.
This wonderfully tense thriller unfolds at a sharp
fast pace, and even if like the Chairmen you don't get all the minute detail,
you know that you are witnessing a potentially major disaster. The total disregard for human casualties is frightening
and made compellingly believable by a stellar cast who convincingly mastered
all the financial jargon. The cool hard
Chairman is brilliant portrayed by Jeremy Irons , and is joined by fellow Brits Paul Bettany
as Will the chancer of a Floor Supervisor, and Simon Baker as the young steely
CEO. Sam is played by Kevin Spacey looking very much his age but showing what a
fine actir he used to be too, Demi Moore was the token women excecutve, and the junior analyst who disvoevred it all was played Zachary Quinto, a refreshing discovery
himself. And this highly polished movie was most surprisingly the debut of writer/director J.C. Chandler.
As much as a I hated what was going down in the story, I
really loved this tale of corporate greed that knows no bounds. It had me totally hooked, as well as putting my last
few dollar bills tucked safely away under my my mattress.
★★★★★★★★
