This is a fascinating appraisal of the antics on Wall Street leading up to the global economic crash that started with the collapse of the American mortgages market in the mid 2000s. Christian Bale, Ryan Gosling and Steve Carell are superb as the three men who identify and appreciate the risks, capitalise on the flaws and who ultimately epitomise the woefully lacking standards of regulation and comprehension by market and government alike; coupled with degrees of avarice that would make King Midas want to blush. The pace of the film is gripping - plenty of parallel threads that gradually conjoin to create a compelling narrative well exemplified by a cast at the top of their game delivering a taut, fast moving adaptation of Michael Lewis' frequently jaw-dropping book. The technique of using real celebrities (like Margot Robbie & Selena Gomez) to illustrate some of the more abstruse aspects of these bewildering processes is effective, and the supporting cast - especially Brad Pitt (who reminded me a lot of Robert Redford), as perhaps the most odious of all: he knew the likely pitfalls for the ordinary people of their scheming, but proceeded regardless - Rafe Spall and Finn Wittrock add marvellously to this. What is does lack, though, is any sort of political dimension. It sets it's sights fairly on the excesses of the businesses, but focusses not at all on the incompetencies of regulators and politicians alike, which does present us with a bit of bias as to the complicity of many, many more than just the bankers in this disaster. It has a degree of thinly woven humanity to it, but sadly illustrates all to clearly how profligacy and greed prevailed in the absence of any real sense of decency or integrity. The last ten minutes is particularly potent - or should that be portentous...?
