Director: J.C. Chandor
Year Released: 2011
Rating: 2.0
A mathematically-inclined worker at an investment company (Stanley Tucci) discovers that a crisis is looming - he's soon fired from the job but before he goes, he passes the info on to an MIT grad (Zachary Quinto) who reports the pending disaster to his superiors (Jeremy Irons, Paul Bettany and Kevin Spacey). The concept is timely and relevant but this movie is intentionally vague and spends too much of its psychic energy dumbing down its information (the 'report' is a MacGuffin) and tiptoeing around specifics, so what remains is a lot of good actors exchanging shifty glances in darkened rooms. The point is clear that these executives could care less about the people their nasty 'solution' to the crisis affects - these capitalists are more concern with saving themselves or little matters in their life (Spacey's dying dog is the key metaphor) - but this is really an overly-simplistic movie masquerading as an intelligent one (unlike 2000's Boiler Room, which was far better at this kind of thing).
