A film
review by David Wiegand, S.F. Chronicle, May 19, 2011.
Too Big to Fail, HBO's adaptation of Andrew Ross Sorkin's book airing
Monday, has a lot going for it, including one great performance after another
from an A-list cast, crisp direction by Curtis
Hanson and the sweeping theme of pulling the nation's economy back from
total collapse.
There's
only one problem: If you're the kind of person who balances his checkbook by
collecting ATM receipts, most of it will be hard to understand. The real Henry
Paulson, Timothy Geithner and Ben Bernanke may know this stuff like the backs
of their hands. But for just plain folks, it's pretty tough sledding.
With a
screenplay by Peter Gould, Too Big to Fail looks at what happened
only a couple of years ago when huge Wall Street institutions such as Lehman
Bros., Morgan Stanley, AIG and Goldman Sachs found themselves fighting for
their lives. In short, if these institutions were allowed to collapse, it would
not only imperil the nation's economy but have equally disastrous global
consequences.
The film
focuses on then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson (William Hurt in a towering performance), who had pushed for
deregulation when he headed Goldman but once he was keeper of the nation's
coffers found himself without the necessary legal resources to stanch the
financial bloodshed.
At
first, Paulson had only Lehman to worry about, as does Lehman's two-fisted CEO,
Dick Fuld (James Woods). But as
other institutions begin to wobble, the idea of multiple bailouts became not
only politically dangerous but fiscally irresponsible. In the end, after the
passage of needed legislation by Congress, the feds were able to make
lifesaving cash transfusions to the troubled companies by becoming nonvoting
stockholders.
That's
the World Economy Bailout for Dummies
shorthand version of the film, which, to its credit, goes out of its way to
pause here and there during its churning pace to explain basic economic
principles to its audience.
Despite
the complexity of the subject, it's impossible not to get the gist of what went
on in 2008, thanks to the focus on the players and the actors who do the
playing. What a cast: Tony Shalhoub
(Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack), Edward
Asner (Warren Buffett), Bill Pullman
(JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon), Paul
Giamatti (Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke), Billy Crudup (New York Federal Reserve Bank President Tim Geithner),
Evan Handler (Goldman Sachs CEO
Lloyd Blankfein) and Matthew Modine
(Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain).
Director
Curtis Hanson paces the whole thing like a thriller, as if the fate of the
entire world were at stake. By the end, even if we don't entirely understand
the complexity of the threat, we're convinced that's exactly how serious the
crisis was.
The supporting cast includes James Heard, Erin Dilly, Amy Carlson, Topher Grace, Ayad Akhtar, Cynthia Nixon, Kathy Baker and Erin Burnett.
Labels:
drama, finance, thriller
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