A Mess That Knows Exactly What it Wants to Say

Rating: Null/10 (2 February 2016)

The Big Short basically follows three sets of people as they capitalise on a fault in the banking system that no-one else can see. Dr. Michael Burry discovers it almost by accident and hatches an outlandish plan to earn his company a lot of money by betting against the housing market. The banks are more than happy to take all his money off him thinking they've made a lot of money very quickly, blind to the disaster that's about to befall them. Word spreads and a handful of entrepreneurial individuals dig a little deeper and decide to follow suit. This play makes everyone hugely unpopular amongst their peers and bosses, until the inevitable collapse of the global economy occurs in 2008.
Somehow Adam McKay manages to treat this subject matter with as much humour as seriousness. He pokes fun at the financial industry, while simultaneously highlighting the very serious repercussions the collapse had on every day people. The three sets of people who bet against the housing market initially do so to stick their middle fingers up at the banks and earn a lot of money in the process, but by the end they find their success bittersweet. They've all become ridiculously wealthy, and the corrupt banks have fallen hard, but all at the cost of millions of people losing their jobs and their homes.
Unfortunately this lends to a very uneven watch that can't decide on a tonal direction. It throws around technical jargon that any other financial thriller, knowing full well the average person has no idea, so handy definitions and analogies are provided. However these definitions are full of tongue-in-cheek jabs and off-kilter presentation. The first one of note, for example, they cut to Margot Robbie, as herself, enjoying a soak in a bubble bath as she explains Sub-Prime Loans. It's obviously played for laughs and irony, but it also cuts into the momentum of the movie, and acts as a sudden injection of comedy into an otherwise serious exchange. I have to applaud it though, the comedy at play in The Big Short is a lot deeper and more meaningful than just some jokes thrown into the dialogue (although there's a handful of those as well).
On the flipside, it grapples with some pretty heavy character moments. Mark Baum is half- heartedly attending Anger Management classes as he tries to bottle up his emotions after the suicide of his brother. Once this Big Short idea is lain in his lap, he becomes a bit of a righteous crusader trying to open the banks' eyes, uncovering corruption and dodgy-dealing as he goes. When he "wins" at the end, there's no sigh of relief or victory dance, there's just the crushing realisation that he's profited off the suffering of the poor by the banks' doing, becoming as bad as they were. Steve Carrell breezes through this progression masterfully. Christian Bale may be getting all the awards attention, but for me, Carrell was the shining star.
That's not to understate Bale's Michael Burry though. Bale proves, again and again, that he's a heavyweight in the acting category. There doesn't seem to be anything he can't do. Here he plays Michael Burry as extremely socially awkward without hamming it up. He's a guy who prefers to be alone and shut the world out with metal music, but when he has to interact, he flubs and he stutters and is never quite sure of what to say. Also, Bale being Bale, the amount of preparation work he put into the role is admirable. He learnt drums and struggled through a knee injury just for the role.
Ryan Gosling's Jared Vennert acts as facilitator to Mark Baum's role in the story. As far as character work goes, he gets the short end of the stick. His biggest job is to narrate the whole affair, which gives him the most comedy edge than anyone else. He's absolutely successful in that regard. Finally there's John Magaro as Charlie Geller and Finn Wittrock as Jamie Shipley who are budding traders struggling to get on the ladder, and enlist the help of the highly paranoid retired Wall Street trader Ben Rickert, played by Brad Pitt. Again Pitt doesn't get a whole lot to do, and Geller and Wittrock play characters driven more by naive ambition than a sense of doing the right thing. Although of course, they're hit with the consequences of everything by the end, when they walk into their dream trading room and it's empty and dead.
The Big Short is a heavy watch. It's packed full of jargon and difficult and confusing concepts to get your head around (intentionally, by the banks). There's some great acting talent on display, bringing us deep and conflicted characters. It can feel a bit messy when it attempts to lighten the mood and maintain the audience's attention with humour, which doesn't particularly succeed, but the story it tells remains riveting. The whole movie acts as a satirical jab at the American finance industry and how, even after it's monumental f***-up, it's still ultimately working the same as it used to. I give The Big Short a very ambitious 8/10.