I just saw this movie at the Austin South by Southwest Film Festival, and having read the book of the same name on which this movie is based, the filmmakers did a good job of fitting a lot of information into two hours. I thought the most entertaining part of the film was the portraits of the primary Enron villains (Jeff Skilling, Ken Lay, and Andy Fastow). The book illustrated how these people often were made to eat their words, and seeing it on video makes it funny as well as sad.
Having said that, I thought the filmmakers focused too much (about a fourth of the film) on the California energy crisis. Whether this was because the director was from California I don't know, but Enron was far from the only or even the biggest beneficiary of Calafornia's energy difficulties. Enron took advantage of the energy market in CA because that is what the rules let it do (the rules were put in place by the CA legislature and approved by Gray Davis, whom the film inexplicably portrays as some sort of martyr). Also the film's portrayal of Enron's close ties to the Bush family feel more like Michael Moore-style political hackery than genuine investigation (let's find some videotape of Bush saying he liked Enron then show it for five minutes!) Ultimately the movie seems to blame the free market system itself for Enron's collapse instead of the hubris-run-amok that was portrayed so well in the book from which the film was adapted. That being said, watching a bunch of thieving, scheming CEO's who once ruled the world stumble over their own lies can be quite amusing, if not vindicating.
Having said that, I thought the filmmakers focused too much (about a fourth of the film) on the California energy crisis. Whether this was because the director was from California I don't know, but Enron was far from the only or even the biggest beneficiary of Calafornia's energy difficulties. Enron took advantage of the energy market in CA because that is what the rules let it do (the rules were put in place by the CA legislature and approved by Gray Davis, whom the film inexplicably portrays as some sort of martyr). Also the film's portrayal of Enron's close ties to the Bush family feel more like Michael Moore-style political hackery than genuine investigation (let's find some videotape of Bush saying he liked Enron then show it for five minutes!) Ultimately the movie seems to blame the free market system itself for Enron's collapse instead of the hubris-run-amok that was portrayed so well in the book from which the film was adapted. That being said, watching a bunch of thieving, scheming CEO's who once ruled the world stumble over their own lies can be quite amusing, if not vindicating.