Too Big To Fail

For a topic that sounds as dry as a fund prospectus, the acting and pacing is exceptional.

Whether you agree or disagree, the film sorts out a complex situation in simple and human terms.

Despite the complexity of the subject, it's impossible not to get the gist of what went on in 2008, thanks to the focus on the players and the actors who do the playing.

Given the topic, Too Big to Fail might seem like a movie made only for policy wonks but even if you don't understand the finer points of monetary policy, it's still entertaining because it features that great equalizer in American popular culture: Wealthy, well-heeled people behave like jerks, allowing the less wealthy a certain superior satisfaction.

The problem is that financial idiots (hello!) will still be bewildered by the complicated wranglings and enormous cast, and people familiar with the crisis will be annoyed by the simplistic tone and fictionalized scenes.

Too Big to Fail is pretty consistent low-key entertainment if not exactly enlightening (because it is an impersonation of the truth) or gripping (because we already know how it sort of ends).

It's a strike against the film that a tiresome connect-the-dots summary of the major players and events is propped up with half-hearted attempts at suspense and ticking clocks and breathlessly watched congressional vote coverage, and rote scenes of actors barking into phones and delivering lines that writer Peter Gould probably wishes he got from the other Sorkin.