March 19th, 2012, 10:34 am
Jeremy Irons was very good indeed, if I'd met that character I'd have believed he did the job he was acting, indeed a he reminded me directly of more than one person at that level doing that sort of job when he needs to do something harsh.He was well supported by a good script which was a bit short on details but as good as you could expect from a mainstream film.The Quant was particularly well played and I don't think I've ever seen Quinto screw up a role and I found his fate to be realistic in this context.The head trader (Paul Bettany) was also bang on the money, not all head traders are like that but quite a few are, if I'd worked on the film as a consultant I would not have changed a word or mannerism,The traders in general were a bit anonymous and to my view a bit too easily persauded to do what they did, though an accurate touch was the way their incentive to do bad things was precise yet arbitrary.The surprisingly good part was Demi Moore, managing to do "senior corporate woman" uniquely well, I have never seen a woman in a big firm played more like they really are than this, most are silly caricatures and although there is no chance she will get an Oscar, she and Irons deserve them.The meetings were like ones I have attended when bad shit is going down, my quibble is only that the decisions were made more quickly than I'd expect but to get the film to a watchable length that was inevitable.Stanley Tucci has a small but extremely well crafted part, again I recognised people I know in him.The drinking was not entirely right, at the start it reflected what real bankers do, but I simply don't accept that when the shit his the fan that the people involved would go back in bars, unless their roles were of alcoholics.Indeed I'd have shoved in a small subplot of the methods they'd use to try and sober up.People were shafted in the ways I would expect them to be "handled", the mechanisms were entirely plausible and reflected the way that happens in real life, maybe I'd quibble about some of the cash numbers involved.The problem with the film was Kevin Spacey.He's a truly great actor and that's the problem, the film was warped to make his unimportant and frankly dull character more important than it had any need to be, indeed I never got clear in my mind what his actual job was.He was obviously a senior exec but he didn't seem to actually be in charge of anything of have any responsibilities, so strong was this impression that I almost wonder if that was a satire on the way some real life execs don't seem to have any purpose.This is a very good film indeed, it should be compulsory for any newbie banker to watch it as part of their induction to this line of work.