Too Big To Fail (Hanson, 2011)

[kaytee]

I enjoy watching and reading about how we ended up in this financial mess where US has to raise its debt ceiling so they can spend more and how S&P downgraded US's rating and how all this started in 2008 when Henry Paulson, Ben Bernanke, Tim Geithner were all trying to save wall street.

Too Big To Faill shows us how Paulson along with his aides tried to save Lehman Brothers from going under and how the troubles kept compounding. I'm sure the movie is not accurate portryal of the situation but does a solid job on giving us insights on what actually happened in the 6 months of 2008 before Lehman went under and how the US had to bail out AIG and tried to save the other banks with the TARP program. The sad part of the whole situation is that US government still struggled with governance of the funds they gave the banks under TARP and executives of the financial institutions still raked in billions as bonuses while the economy was in a dump.

Starring a stellar cast of William Hurt as Henry Paulson, Paul Giamatti in a small role as Ben Bernanke, Billy Crudup as Tim Geithner, James Woods as Dick Fuld Chairman of Lehman Bros and the supporting cast of Bill Pullman, Topher Grace, Cynthia Nixon, Tony Shaloub and a lot more. The focus of the movie is on William Hurt who does full justice to his role and shows how difficult a job it must have been for Henry Paulson to save the US economy from tanking. Even though this is an HBO movie it does not feel like one. The production is at par with any other big studio releases and with Curtis Hanson directing it didnt look too amateurish either.

Give it a go if you love to see capitalism show its true colors.

4/5

[fizz]

I'm sold on Paul Giamatti as Ben Bernanke and Billy Crudup as Tim Geithner!

Sound recommendation too, especially since it seems that the second wave of the ugly recession is certainly upon us now...

[kaytee]

Though Paul has a small role in the movie and does not really bring anything significant to the table, he looks the part.

[animatedude]

what should we call these movies now? post recession or pre recession or just the recession recession movies..

[fizz]

Make no mistake, the term "post-recession" is still years away