Margin Call (2011)
Average Rating: 7.2/10
Reviews Counted: 150
Fresh: 132 | Rotten: 18
Smart, tightly wound, and solidly acted, Margin Call turns the convoluted financial meltdown of '08 into gripping, thought-provoking drama.
Average Rating: 7.5/10
Critic Reviews: 40
Fresh: 36 | Rotten: 4
Smart, tightly wound, and solidly acted, Margin Call turns the convoluted financial meltdown of '08 into gripping, thought-provoking drama.
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Average Rating: 3.7/5
User Ratings: 15,341
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Movie Info
Set in the high-stakes world of the financial industry, Margin Call is an entangling thriller involving the key players at an investment firm during one perilous 24-hour period in the early stages of the 2008 financial crisis. When an entry-level analyst unlocks information that could prove to be the downfall of the firm, a roller-coaster ride ensues as decisions both financial and moral catapult the lives of all involved to the brink of disaster. Writer/director J.C. Chandor's enthralling first
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Cast
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Kevin Spacey
Sam Rogers -
Paul Bettany
Will Emerson -
Jeremy Irons
John Tuld -
Zachary Quinto
Peter Sullivan -
Penn Badgley
Seth Bregman -
Simon Baker
Jared Cohen -
Mary McDonnell
Mary Rogers -
Demi Moore
Sarah Robertson -
Stanley Tucci
Eric Dale -
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Margin Call Trailer & Photos
All Critics (152) | Top Critics (40) | Fresh (133) | Rotten (18) | DVD (5)
Chandor proffers a cross-section of a Lehman Brothers-esque company as the realisation dawns that sub-prime speculation has brought the market to an ominous tipping point.
Top CriticCarefully crafted performances and taut pacing carry the day.
Topical drama about the financial crisis lacks the visceral punch to grab an audience.
A methodical, coolly absorbing boardroom thriller.
Spacey is mesmerizing as Sam, a weary, aging lion losing his appetite for antelope. And Irons plays the villain with magisterial ease.
It's a realistic take on what happens when high-flying money speculators suddenly hit ground. It's also a great calling card for J.C. Chandor, the writer/director making his feature debut.
In Margin Call, first time writer-director JC Chandor creates a humanizing insight into the lives of the bankers who discovered the fall of the economy.
Maybe the financial collapse went down something like this...
Wily humor and sly observations about the lives of these high rollers are the highlights... It's when those give way to issues of morality that the film disappoints, just a little...
At times, the film becomes just a series of static, over-determined conversations held in lofty offices and gleaming toilets.
Margin Call can't beat the street, missing the mark in a major way given the massive expectations.
Es casi imposible identificarse con alguno de los personajes. Y el director y guionista lo sabe, por eso dota a su ópera prima de una tensión propia de un thriller, y de una mirada cínica y desencantada.
This is Chandor's triumph, and marks him out as someone to keep an eye on in the future.
Margin Call's a tightly scripted, intensely acted, skillfully directed, character piece that illuminates the depths of moral and ethical corruption at the epicentre of western capitalist society.
Intelligently written and brilliantly portrayed, Margin Call delves into the belly of the beast where consequence is given no conscious and the line between good vs evil is blurred amongst a sea of numbers.
Taut Wall Street drama takes an inside look at financial and human meltdown.
With a script void of shouting matches and preachy monologues, J.C. Chandor makes the brave decision not to demonise these characters.
[It] gives us villains that, rather than being sympathetic, are well-argued and reasonable. It gives us heroes that, whilst idealistic, make immoral choices for their own betterment. Margin Call is complex, fury-inspiring, and thoughtful.
What makes it engaging is that the Oscar nominated screenplay explores the people who make the decisions from a moral point of view. And finds them wanting.
It's a fascinating film that reveals much about its characters and provides food for thought for all of us who live in a capitalist society. Greed may be good for the avaricious but it's sure as hell ugly when it comes at any cost
Smart, sharp and dark, J C Chandor's ensemble drama - eliciting defined, defiant performances from an A-grade cast - summons the spirit of David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross.
Chandor underplays the human drama and the anonymity of the Wall Street office building so much it risks slipping into doldrums, but the stakes are too great and the actors too sharp to let that happen.
Strong acting props up this emotionless process film. It is like something David Mamet would make, slick and clever, but lacking in real feeling or drama.
A commendably sober and even handed drama, that gives the much loathed bankers human faces (tethered to animal metaphors, notably fat cats and dead dogs), while noting the culture of profligacy and flippancy within which they operate.
Audience Reviews for Margin Call
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
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- Will Emerson: I'm all out of nicorettes, which means in about ten minutes I'm going to kill somebody.
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- Seth Bregman: This could be huge. The losses would be greater than the current value of the company.
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- Eric Dale: I was working on something but they didn't let me finish. Here, take a look at it. Be careful.
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- John Tuld: Speak to me as you would a 2 year old or a golden retriever.
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- Will Emerson: Some people like taking the long way home.
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- Sam Rogers: We dont sell anything to anybody unless they are going to come back for more.
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Foreign Titles
- Der große Crash - Margin Call (DE)
