Movie Review
Review The Big Short
Several years before the 2008 housing market crash, Scion Capital founder Michael Burry (Christian Bale) notices the subprime mortgage vulnerabilities and seizes the opportunity to invest. Purchasing large quantities of credit default swaps from numerous major banks, his unorthodox activities attract the attention of trader Jared Vennett (Ryan Gosling), who in turn convinces FrontPoint Partners hedge fund manager Mark Baum (Steve Carell) to buy into the scheme. Despite extreme criticism from colleagues and severe skepticism from clients, the obstinate few that forged ahead and bet against the economy wound up making billions while the rest of the world lost trillions.
Maybe I just don't get it or maybe you have to be in the banking industry to care but it's very boring. It's literally just guys talking to each other and about money the entire length of the movie. I kept waiting for something to kick in- story, characters- something! After watching it, I was thinking: I lost 2 hours of my life watching a movie (not for the first time), but after these 2 hours I have nothing to show for - I didn't understand anything of it (maybe for the first time). OK, I said even if it's not my kind of movie, I should at least know what is going on in it!
The best part of the movie was actually the performances of the actors. The acting is exactly what you expect from the actors in it. I don't need to tell you that, we're talking about A+ talent all around. Yet still, Christian Bale manages to rise above this shaft of talent and steel the show, proving once again he is just the man. Steve Carell brings Baum to life, even if he does over act at times. Ryan Gosling, embodies the fact that he's a scum bag and just rolls with it, offering an entertainingly slick performance.
By the end of it all, the lead characters don't appear heroic or revolutionary, or even particularly wise. Their successes in going against the grain have the aura of luck or gambling instead of intellectual brilliance. Even when they face corruption so widespread that it's become synonymous with normal commerce, there isn't a sense of winning or losing – merely weathering the periods of time when the villainy of banks and the government are at their most extreme.
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