Free Margin Call Movie Review Sample

In my opinion, “Margin Call” can be discussed from three perspectives, which are economic, biological and psychological. The film is considered to be a drama and a thriller at the same time. The economic problem depicted in the film is quite obvious and the audience does not require a degree in Economics or Finance in order to understand this. However, the economic component is this movie plays a role which is way too far from being vital, or even one of the key points. As a person watches the movie further, it becomes obvious that human nature, behavior and actions are the key elements which the director wanted to highlight.
The second perspective one can see this film from is biological. Darwin’s theory of natural selection is shown really well, especially as the viewer comes to the scene where the CEO and Chairman of the Board of the bank, John Tuld, explains this theory quite well using live examples to his partner and, as I assume, friend Sam Rogers, the Head of Sales and Trading Department. As a matter of fact, I have not thought about this film from this perspective, nevertheless, the creativity and accuracy the director used to show the natural selection to the audience is remarkable and deserves an appreciation.
The last but definitely not the least is the psychological component of the film. To my mind, it is the strongest point. I would even call it not psychological but human since it shows the behavior of a human being under stressful conditions and what choices people make when given an ultimatum. Each and every person in the film could make a choice to either suppress the others before they will knock you down, or stand by other colleagues and work as a team in order to take everyone out of the mess which the bank was facing at the moment. The list of their possible solutions and actions could go on and on. And everyone did which seemed more reasonable and acceptable for them.
This film is an exception, where the audience does not have to pay attention to the plot since human nature is way more important than the action. The importance of the problem raised by the film is way more significant than the financial crisis and its influence on people’s lives. It challenges human ability not to lose the face and still manage to be human-beings and act as ones.
Though it is impossible to identify the main character in the film, I would still pay more attention to the leading personalities of the film. They are Sam Rogers (Head of Sales and Trading), John Tuld (CEO and Chairman of the Board), Peter Sullivan (Senior Risk Analyst), Eric Dale (Former Head of Risk Management), Will Emerson (Head of Trading), Sarah Robertson (Chief Risk Management Officer), Jared Cohen (Head of Capital Markets) and Seth Bregman (Junior Risk Analyst).
I would like to start with Eric Dale, who may not be the main character in the film, however, his performance I enjoyed the most in the movie. Dale was fired after dedicating 19 years of his life to the bank. It was an annual stuff reduction and he became one of the many people who were fired that day. It is needless to say that he was angry, disappointed and totally devastated by the news. As many other workers, he thought it would be anyone but him fired that day. However, he was wrong. His decision to give the flash-drive to one of his co-workers can be evaluated differently. If we did not know his reasons, we would think that his actions meant only good and in this way he wanted to save the company and the employees who were working days and nights for the sake of the bank and deserved to know the current financial situation and manage to get away holding a decent sums on their bank accounts. Nevertheless, I do not think it was his main reason. First of all, he was furious. Secondly, he wanted to get back at those who made him leave and see the bank collapse in front of his eyes. No one knew how long the bank would be able to exist and keep going. Thus he wanted to witness it crash. Eventually, he even managed to get a very reasonable compensation for his action which was estimated in millions of dollars. Nevertheless, I am still convinced his main reason was revenge.
The second character I enjoyed observing is Sam Rogers, the Head of Sales and Trading. In my opinion, he was the most humane among them all. He was very calm and confident in front of others all the time, regardless of the situation. Sometimes it even seemed to me that he cared about his dog much more than the lives of his own subordinates. He was more upset about his dog having cancer than people leaving the company with ruined drams an d careers behind their backs. However, I still think that it was due to the thick tall wall he managed to build after all this years which kept him going without looking back. And the death of his dog was just an event which broke this wall into many pieces. He did his best to convince the CEO and the Board not to close the bank and lie to their clients since their trust will never be back.
The character of John Tuld which was splendidly performed by Jeremy Irons was the most charismatic and in the same time the most inhumane character in the movie. Everything he cared about was getting the most of what was left. He could not care les about the others which made it possible for him to take rational and economically correct decisions and not be influenced by mare emotions and pity. He is smart, heartless and rational personality whose view of the world was mainly about getting the most at any cost.
Definitely one of the leading characters and the cause of all this mess is Peter Sullivan, a Senior Risk Analyst. He is a smart young man who figured out what Dale was working on and managed to solve the sum by the end of the day. As a responsible employee, he immediately reported his findings to the head of his department, Will Emerson, and was the one who explained the situation to the CEO. As I see this character, he is a confident young man who never cared about the profit but enjoyed solving problems. He was never upset by the collapse for the bank since he knew he would be able to get enough out of it and continue his work elsewhere. He managed to solve the problem and the game did not seem interesting for him any longer. He now was curios to start another career at a different place where he could continue solving complicated problems.
The other interesting character to talk about is Will Emerson, the Head of Trading. He is a type of person who never cared about the company in the first place. The only thing he was curious about is his income and the ways he could spend it. However, he was an honest and decent employee who supported his boss till the very end.
Sarah Robertson, the Chief Risk Management Officer did not show up that often but was definitely an interesting character. Every scene she appeared in had a meaning and Moore managed to fit as many emotions as possible in her every action. She was interested in saving the company since she sensed that she would be made the one guilty for everything, and eventually was right. It seemed like her whole life flew in front of her eyes that night and by the end of it she realized that if she could start over, she would definitely spend it the other way around. She was left with a ruined career and absolutely no one to support and be supported by.
Jared Cohen, the Head of Capital Markets did not play a significant part in the film. He was a convinced supported of his boss and was ready to realize his any plan. In this perspective, he was very similar to the CEO but more emotional and less rational and cruel yet.
The last character, Seth Bregman who was the Junior Risk Analyst is the character I despised the most in the film. The only reason he wanted the bank to keep going is fear of losing a well-paid and prestigious job. The only question he had on his mind was “How much do you make?”