A remarkable movie

Rating: 9/10 (8 January 2016)

This is one very remarkable, highly original and innovative movie. Scenes such as the one when a very beautiful woman in a bubble bath, sipping champagne, explains one of the more complicated financial mechanisms that lead to the Great Recession are remarkable.
The acting is all first rate. With the exception of Brad Pitt, whose character is not very well written, I saw only the characters being portrayed, not the actors portraying them.
The only problem, for me - and this might be condescending on my part - is that I don't believe this movie will make much of any sense to those who have not read up on all the complicated and, frankly, dishonest financial tricks that led to the Recession. The explanations provided, though very clever, all go past so fast that I don't know who could make sense of them if they did not already understand the situation.
This is not a warm, fuzzy movie. The characters are either pompous or very self-centered. There isn't really a likable one in the crowd. but then, these were the men who played with the nation's finances, not just with other peoples' money but with other peoples' lives, as if they were just pieces on a game board.
As the movie points out at the end, only one person went to jail for all this inhuman activity. This movie convinces you that there were thousands who should have joined him.