Margin Call
dir. J.C. Chandor · 2011
In the face of impending crisis, individuals must confront the moral compromises they are willing to make for survival and success.
A senior risk analyst is abruptly laid off from a prestigious financial firm, only to discover a catastrophic financial analysis that could spell disaster for the company. As the night unfolds, the remaining executives scramble to contain the fallout, revealing the moral compromises they are willing to make. Watching it feels like being trapped in a high-stakes game of chess, where every move could lead to ruin or survival.
A respected financial company is downsizing, and one of the victims is the risk-management division head, who was working on a major analysis just when he was let go. His protégé completes the study late into the night, then frantically calls his colleagues in about the company's financial disaster he has discovered. What follows is a long night of panicked double-checking and double-dealing as the senior management prepare to do whatever it takes to mitigate the coming debacle even as the handful of conscientious comrades find themselves dragged along into the unethical abyss.
