A film about bankers

Rating: 5/10 (5 June 2016)

"The Big Short" is a film with Steve Carell and some other folks about things in the banking industry that lead to the 2008 recession. Various banking guys discover issues in the industry that could lead to a potential market collapse. At the least, they uncover fraudulent and deceptive practices. A lot of the movie seems to be scenes in which hotshots from Bank A with knowledge about problematic mortgages visit bigwigs from Bank B hoping to cash in or learn more about the problem by shielding themselves from sharing the ultimate issue at hand. "You mean you don't do income verification when giving people mortgages?" "No, we don't." And more questions from the Bank A people follow. Never a desire to set such people straight and tell them that their jobs and lives are at stake, never a desire to wonder if their participation in the banking industry itself should be questioned. Steve Carell's character, always looking to point out and draw out the problem and bringing attention to it without providing a path forward to how to tighten up this practice and prevent it from happening in the future. Sorry, can't identify. Part of the film seems to be a crusade against "big banking capitalists" by noting that the poor and working class will be affected by these sketchy mortgage deals, but then by the end of the movie the main characters appear to cash in themselves on such an industry. You uncovered the problem, brilliant, but then don't have either the moral fortitude or wherewithal about how to lead things forward to a stronger future. I guess, that is, because you are simply bankers. Features a rather strange performance by Christian Bale.