Too Dry to Succeed

I started subscribing to HBO last month in order to view Game of Thrones, but I've been looking for ways to stretch the "investment." It's not that Game of Thrones hasn't felt well worth it all by itself; I just feel a little better about spending the money if I check out at least a few other things.

So it was that I tried out HBO's newest original movie, Too Big to Fail. It's an attempt to build a kind of suspense-thriller out of the banking crisis in 2008. It boasts a star-studded cast including William Hurt, Paul Giamatti, James Woods, Topher Grace, Billy Crudup, Bill Pullman, Tony Shalhoub, Matthew Modine, Edward Asner, Cynthia Nixon, Kathy Baker, and more.

Essentially, this film tries to be the dramatized version of the documentary Inside Job. And it's about as effective, which is to say that it's a mixed bag. As an insight into just what the hell happened, it's informative. But as a piece of drama, it falters for lack of sympathetic characters. The script never misses a moment to put a mustache-twirling evil line in the mouth of some banker bigwig, but doesn't manage to make you cheer for the people trying to avert the crisis.

That epic cast is really a necessity to tell the tale. Not all of those actors actually get something meaty to portray. Outside of William Hurt and James Woods, everyone is playing a fairly cardboard role (and Woods basically drops out of the movie halfway through). The thing is, this story has so many characters, all so interchangeable, and all with relatively few lines, that famous faces are needed to help the viewer track who is who. It works, but it feels like some serious talent is being squandered.

As a "further justification for HBO," the film is probably worth the time. But it's no triumph for you to seek out if you don't already subscribe. Wait for the eventual DVD release, if that. I rate it the film a C+.