Rather over-rated

Rating: 6/10 (1 July 2018)

Mixing fact with fiction, the months that precede the financial disaster of 2008 is chronicled in a satirical way. Various financial players who are able to foresee the outcome end up betting against the U.S. economy for their personal gain. Some of them include an eccentric (Christian Bale), a bully (Ryan Gosling), and two others who have not fully lost their sense of morality (Steve Carell and Brad Pitt).
While this event affected (and continues to affect) many lives quite deeply, there remains a challenge in explaining the beastly details to average moviegoers with a minimal knowledge of economics. For the most part, it helped to have players occasionally speaking to the camera to explain in laymen's terms regarding what is happening. This helps a great deal but the movie's length does not. There are many scenes of economic types in deep conversation. Some of these scenes are great while others create and compound confusion. This is unfortunate as the subject matter is important and worthy of being filmed.
There is also the challenge of dealing with an ending which the audience already knows is coming. The movie does end well with a good commentary. With fine acting and success at finding humour in tragedy (without being condescending), the film might have have had more impact with a shorter length. It was still a worthy attempt.