Jeremy Irons as the bank boss in 'Margin Call'

To those who think all bankers are villains – or heroes, for that matter – let me commend Margin Call, the excellent and balanced film about a Lehman-like bank’s implosion, released last autumn in the US and out this week in the UK.

When the movie first came out, the FT invited two real-life bankers to the screening. One of them said:

I don’t think any banker will want to go, because they lived this, and traders will just point up the stuff that wasn’t right.

It was a film “made for outsiders who want to be smart about the inside”, he added.

But, speaking as an outsider, I think it’s much better than that. Read more