The typical association with the margin or marginality is invisibility. Though the ‘margin’ referred to in this film possesses quite a different meaning, invisibility is its most prominent feature. A duo of anonymous aerial cityscapes give buildings shape, but no indication of humanity, nor our anthropomorphised metaphorical states of rat or ant, ominously illustrate the occlusion of those of us on the ground.

There is simultaneity of symmetry and parallax view that means that the work of the investment bankers in this unnamed firm is invisible to those looked down upon. Peter Sullivan comments on this very obliviousness from the back of a chauffeur-driven car as he and Seth Bregman stoically attempt to troubleshoot what would seem to be an inexorable financial catastrophe. The firm deals in sub-prime mortgages; the rest, we know, is history.

Absence is the third invisibility. As in Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein where the sole female character is despatched from the narrative in the incipient stages of the novel, we begin to know how unimportant women were in 19th Century society. In Margin Call notions such as ethics, morality and the greater good are casualties of an existential ‘absence seizure’ – a transient loss or impairment of conscience.

In the Darwinian boardrooms of Jared Cohen and then John Tuld, at no point during the disaster recovery machinations is the public given consideration, and law is the merest afterthought. Only the immediate impacts on survival, position, power, bonuses and future business are of concern. Head of Trading, Sam Rogers, does have a moment of moral rectitude, knowing that the solution to the crisis is sure to wreck 107 years of reputability, alliances and perhaps even an ‘espirit de corps’ between rivals. This is quickly subsumed by his need for the money.

Margin Call lacks the necessary suspense and tension to make it the thriller it aspires to be. Our knowledge and engagement with the characters is too superficial to convince us that this could be the end of the world, as we know it. However it is successful in providing a human face to a faceless industry.