Too Big to Fail (2011) (TV)

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Jim Wilkinson (Treasury Department)	Topher Grace	½
Ben Bernanke (Chairman of the Federal Reserve)	Paul Giamatti
Timothy Geithner (President of the New York Federal Reserve)	Billy Crudup
Henry Paulson (Secretary of the Treasury)	William Hurt
Dick Fuld (Lehman Brothers)	James Woods
Joe Gregory (Lehman Brothers)	John Heard
Jamie Dimon (JP Morgan-Chase)	Bill Pullman
Vikram Pandit (Citigroup)	Ajay Mehta	½
John Mack (Morgan Stanley)	Tony Shalhoub	½
John Thain (Merrill Lynch)	Matthew Modine	½
Bob Willumstad (AIG)	Tom Mason
Warren Buffett	Edward Asner	½
Michele Davis (Treasury Department PR)	Cynthia Nixon
Dan Jester (Treasury Department)	Joey Slotnick	½
Chris Flowers (Goldman Sachs)	Michael O'Keefe
Erin Callan	Amy Carlson
Christopher Cox (Securities and Exchange Commission)	Peter Hermann
Barney Frank (Massachusetts Congressman)	Dan Hedaya
Wendy Paulson	Kathy Baker
Lloyd Blankfein (Goldman Sachs)	Evan Handler	½
Neel Kashkari (Treasury Department)	Ayad Akhtar	½

Review

Too Big to Fail is an HBO produced TV movie about the weeks leading up to the 2008 financial meltdown in the United States, and how representatives for the Treasury Department worked day and night to find solutions for the country's largest financial institutions, and then try to convince their leaders that they needed to accept those solutions. It is a well-written, fast-moving and rather technical film with great production values and an all-star cast. There is no doubt that the power balance between TV dramas and cinematic releases is in serious change.

The director is Curtis Hanson, and it seems he was concerned with making his film as unpolitical as he could. The good thing about this is that the result is quite unbiased when it comes to the political scale. It is clear that the filmmakers wanted to scrutinize systems and structures rather than politics. The downside is that the film has ended up feeling a little naive. Most of the people portrayed in this film come off as quite noble, something which compared to last year's documentary Inside Job is more than a little lenient. I choose to think that the reason for this is that director Curtis Hanson isn't out to scapegoat or point fingers at anyone with his film, but rather to in a compelling and balanced way tell the story about what happened (or almost happened) over the course of a few weeks back in 2008. He paints a terrifying picture of the fragility of the financial system once the different parties start mistrusting one another, and this is the real effect of Too Big to Fail. As nations and entire economies once again face enormous economic problems these days, the gloomy message Too Big to Fail tells is that this will all happen again.

The script is adapted by Peter Gould from the book by Andrew Ross Sorkin, who works as a reporter with The New York Times. His knowledge about the state of affairs during the meltdown certainly seems comprehensive based on this account, but of course, a dissection such as this will be coloured by the point of view. As directed by Curtis Hanson, Too Big to Fail is a tidy and not overly critical account which is both entertaining and compelling. And the acting is solid, with William Hurt, Paul Giamatti, Billy Crudup and James Woods all giving fine performances.