WARNING: There are a few spoilers in this review, but trust me, if won't matter much at all because you already know what is going to happen.
Your company made a large mistake. You warned your superiors about it several times over a period of several months, but they ignored you. To save themselves, the executives decide to do something wrong; something that will hurt a lot of people, maybe an entire nation, but to do it, they need your help. No matter what happens, you will lose your job, your credibility and perhaps your entire career. They will keep their jobs, bonuses, stock options and societal positions. What would you do?
That's only part of the plot of Margin Call, the J.C. Chandor movie about the beginning of the end of the mortgage backed securities investment industry staring Kevin Spacey, Demi Moore, Stanley Tucci, Jeremy Irons and many others.
The movie is billed as a thriller. A thriller is supposed to be about building suspense and tension, but I didn't see it like that. It was more historical fiction than thriller to me because we all know that the highest echelon of executives never seem to have a hard time finding underlings to do their dirty work. They find them by controlling their lives through their livelihoods. It's hard to give up the nice home and the nice car once you've had them for a while.
The Stanley Tucci character was a manager in the risk management department. He was brutally fired just hours before the mistake was realized. In fact, he helped uncover the problem, but no one wanted to listen to him because they were too busy with their planned and outsourced mass layoff.
Tucci's character was treated badly during his firing. He was offered a pittance of a severance package by an outsourced staff reduction company, led out by a security force and to top it all off, they cancelled his cell phone without giving him even a moment or two to transfer his stored data. When firm's leading partner decided he was needed, or they needed to control his whereabouts to keep him quiet, they flushed him out by using his wife who was unaware of the firing and then they got him to come back by threatening the severance package and offering him a bit more cash. Funny, he didn't ask how he would know the check would clear. It occurred to me that if the firm went under, the severance package might be worthless. If I were him, I'd at least have asked for a wire transfer into my account, or maybe I would have said no and called The New York Times with the story. Maybe he felt assured because the firm was too big to fail, but wasn't Lehman?
Another theme in the movie was executive salaries. The lower level traders liked to talk about their bosses pay and perks. The compensation packages of the highest level executives at the firm were public record. People who work for large, public companies should probably keep tabs on that data as executive sales of company stock are also of public record. If the executives at your company are dumping their company stock, you might want to update your CV.
The junior executives and traders were the only characters in the movie who mentioned the effect of the firm's actions on the greater public. It seemed to go without saying that it's more important to save yourself than try to save a nation. How patriotic we have become as a flag waiving people.
My favorite of the movie's themes was the lack of knowledge at the top. The senior executives of the firm never seemed to understand anything. They were always asking the knowledge workers at the bottom to explain the problem in plain English. They don't want to know the numbers or the background, just the upshot. Jeremy Iron's character asked that things be explained to him as if he were a child. If the firm survives the day, Iron's character fully expects to go back to happy moneyed oblivion.
Somehow it has become common in our US companies to have the least knowledgeable people running the show. I experienced that myself in my own work history. Secretaries and receptionists were promoted to management when managers did the daily head counts, vacation coordination and supply requisitions. Then, suddenly, higher management decided that the knowledge workers knew too much and were not as flexible as they want them to be. So, they re-organized and the secretary-receptionist-managers suddenly had decision-making authority over the knowledge workers. Many Americans like to brag about how one can succeed in the US without a college education, but at the same time, wonder why our economy has tanked and US companies don't seem to be able to compete in the world. I still remember a saleswoman I knew back in the day happily chanting that the C students were managing the A students. Ha ha. Last laugh goes to her, no China really. She was layed off years ago.
The Kevin Spacey character is the old guy who actually knows something, but who was passed over for the next promotion by the good-looking, blond wonder-boy played by Simon Baker. Spacey is needed to inspire the traders to sell themselves out of jobs and careers. He's supposed to be torn about where his loyalties will lie, but it's never really a question because despite all the money he's earned over his many years at the firm, he's broke due to divorce, big house, fancy cars etc. So, he tells the young traders that they are doing something important, something for the greater good and they will get a pile of cash at the end of the day. They forget to ask whose greater good or how they know the checks will clear. If your bosses will screw an entire nation, why would they hesitate with you?
Baker's character is the head of securities, another manager who doesn't seem to know what his department actually does. He doesn't really do anything, but look good and sneer at his counterpart in risk management, played by Demi Moore, who he seeks to maneuver into the position of scapegoat. As the dirty deed is done by the lower level workers, Moore's character sits alone in a room awaiting her destiny. Will she call the overnight desk at FT? Is there ever really a question whether she will or not?
No, Margin Call is not a thriller, so don't feel bad about my spoilers. You know what is going to happen from the very beginning. It's become pretty easy to justify high level wrong doing with short term promises of cash.
The rest of the story is about a dog.
For showing that parents who destroy the economy for a fast million bucks are not doing their kids any favors, Margin Call gets 3 cat treats.
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