showbiz

An insider journey into the 2008 financial crisis in ‘The Big Short’

BY YAP PIK KUAN
January 06, 2016

'The Big Short' features Ryan Gosling, Christian Bale, Brad Pitt and Steve Carell. – January 7, 2015.What do you think of when you think of a film documenting the US and global financial crisis of 2007 and 2008? Boring, dry, yawn.

Ryan Gosling's character, Jared Vennett, acknowledged as much at the beginning of new comedy-drama "The Big Short". But director Adam McKay ("Anchorman") successfully turned a rather niche subject into a funny, informative and enjoyable movie which even the least financially savvy person can appreciate.

"The Big Short" is based on a non-fiction book of the same name by author Michael Lewis, the writer behind "Moneyball" and "The Blind Side" (which was also turned into a film).

It features a star-studded cast including Gosling, Christian Bale, Brad Pitt and Steve Carell playing characters based on real-life people who foresaw the impending collapse of the US economy and managed to profit from it.

The whole chain of events in "The Big Short" was sparked by doctor-turned-hedge-fund-manager, Michael Burry (Bale), who discovers that the US's supposedly unshakeable housing market in the mid-2000s is propped up almost solely by high-risk subprime loans.

Predicting that the defaults on these loans would inevitably increase to a tipping point, he starts betting against the housing market, a move for which he is initially ridiculed.

Vennett (Gosling) catches wind of what Burry is doing and through a wrong number, meets and convinces Mark Baum (Carell) to put their money into credit default swaps, which means that they profit off people who fail to repay their loans.

In a separate storyline, young investors Charlie Geller (John Magaro) and Jamie Shipley (Finn Wittrock) follow suit with the help of retired banker Ben Rickert (Brad Pitt).

The film culminates in the stock market crash of 2008.

What I found most interesting about "The Big Short" was the use of humour where you least expect it. Characters will break the fourth wall to further explain the background to certain scenes, resulting in comedic breaks from an otherwise serious and intense storyline.

Rapid MTV-like editing introduces shots of pop culture events of the time (think booty-shaking rap videos) to break the monotony and situate the film in a larger context.

Personalities like Margot Robbie (in a bubble bath, no less), Anthony Bourdain and Selena Gomez get screen time too, explaining financial jargon in layman terms to the delight of the audience.

Using humour, the film makes it easy for even a clueless viewer like me to grasp the plot and follow what was happening.

As Burry, who is hinted as having Asperger's syndrome, Bale does not play his usual suave self. Instead, he plasters a silly smile on his face and adopts various idiosyncrasies (like rolling around on the floor) that are both quirky and funny.

Clad in a simple T-shirt, shorts and slippers for most of the movie, Bale definitely does not play the character you expect.

Carell is Baum, a hedge fund manager with anger issues, a character who wouldn't be out of place in his usual deadpan repertoire. However, Baum seems the most well-rounded of the cast with dimensions to his personality.

Of all the characters, he is the most affected by remorse and regret that he is profiting off people who would lose their jobs and homes.

Truth be told, I did not expect to enjoy "The Big Short" as much as I did. The film surprisingly kept me at the edge of my seat and left me more informed than before.

While there were some quiet, plodding scenes, "The Big Short" was largely entertaining and funny. If you want to know what happened in the 2008 financial crisis, the film summarises it for you in two hours with a healthy dose of comedy.

Even if you're not interested, give it a try, at least for the great performance of the cast, and you might be surprised.

"The Big Short" premieres in cinemas nationwide tomorrow, January 7, 2016. – January 6, 2016.