Too Big to Fail

Directed by Curtis Hanson, Too Big to Fail chronicles the 2008 financial meltdown from the perspective of several key figures – including Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson (William Hurt), Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke (Paul Giamatti), and Lehman Brothers Chief Executive Officer Dick Fuld (James Woods). Hanson, working from a script by Peter Gould, wastes little time in jumping straight into the thick of the action, with the filmmaker’s get-to-the-point sensibilities preventing the viewer from working up any interest in the movie’s myriad of subplots. Far more problematic, however, is the almost total lack of character development, as Hanson offers up one paper-thin real-life figure after another and somehow expects the viewer to sympathize with and care about their ongoing exploits. (This is despite the presence of an almost ridiculous number of familiar faces in the film’s various roles, including, among others, Tony Shalhoub, Billy Crudup, Matthew Modine, and Topher Grace.) There is, as a result, a lack of momentum here that proves utterly disastrous, and although Hanson has admittedly sprinkled the proceedings with a handful of compelling moments (eg Bill Pullman’s Jamie Dimon delivers an impassioned speech to a room full of executives), Too Big to Fail ultimately comes off as a talky, surprisingly dull drama that all-too-often feels a reenactment on a financial news network.

** out of ****