Margin Call - You'll either love it or hate it

Or at least I'm guessing most people will from what I've read.

If you read the reviews of Margin Call, you'll see that people either say it's amazingly acted, tense and brilliantly-portrayed or (and I quote) `like watching paint dry.'

Margin Call tells the story of a nameless banking giant in Wall Street as it's about to go under. All the major executives gather for an emergency late night meeting to discuss if there's any way out of it. That's it. The whole film is basically set in a boardroom (and a few surrounding offices) over a period of one night. The cast meets in a boardroom then leaves. We see them in twos or threes as they discuss what's already been discussed in the boardroom then return to the boardroom to discuss more.

You may have guessed by now. I'm siding with the `watching paint dry' camp.

Yes, Margin call does have some great acting talent in there - Kevin Spacey and Jeremy Irons to name but two). However, I just found the whole film boring. Maybe you need to be more into the `investment way of life' to appreciate it more. I just found it difficult to work up much sympathy for people on (and this is the minimum mentioned) $250,000 a year. Oh dear - they might be out of a job. Tragedy.

As I said, for every person out there who feels like me, there seems to be someone who raves about this film. Okay, so it may be a good reflection of the banking world and the dialogue realistic, I just didn't care for it.

Check out the other reviews and make an informed choice before you decide to watch this. I'm a big fan of Kevin Spacey, but I wouldn't sit through this again.

5/10 a hard trek, a bit like unicycling to Mordor and back