McKay’s comic and clear-eyed adaption has a handful of finance speculators predicting a downturn in the housing market only to realize, to their horror and immense profit, that they’ve effectively bet against America, and won.
It’s a rollicking, outrage-fueled odyssey through the financial collapse of 2008, from the carefree offices on Wall Street to the subdivisions in Florida, that gradually reveals not just a market bubble but a colossally bankrupt system and a nation that blissfully teetered into absurdity.
It was made into a film largely thanks to Pitt’s clout. His production company, Plan B Entertainment, provided financing that saw it through a long development process. Then he secured the rest of the funds by taking a small (but pivotal) role as Ben Rickert, the smartest of the smartypants, who saw the crisis coming, got out and is now living off the grid, growing his own food.
The film stars Steve Carrell, Ryan Gosling and Christian Bale, but “Brad’s presence in the film was key,” McKay said at a recent screening in Toronto.
“He knew he had to play a real role.” He did it for the right reasons, too: The financial world is as dodgy as ever, and Pitt says so on every red carpet he walks.
You could argue that a megacelebrity who craps from his aerie on how other people make money is a hypocrite. But Pitt is “not just the smartest guy in town,” McKay says. “He’s also the most generous guy. He wants to address the poverty gap. He builds houses for people. He genuinely cares.”
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One Response
Brad Pitt wasn’t my favorite person because of how he went about his divorce from Jennifer Aniston, and I know no one is perfect, but I still believe he could have handled that a LOT better. However, that does not take away from all the good he has done and still continues to do for the less fortunate. I believe that, deep down, where it counts, he is a good person and I applaud him for all his good works.