Documentary Review: Alex Gibney's Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room

After watching Alex Gibney's new documentary "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room," one feels the distinct urge to shower. But the grime of white-collar greed, shocking government complicity, and the inherent flaws in our economic system cannot be washed away. Watching this well-made, if complicated documentary will at least bring some of the complexities of the Enron case to light for those of us lacking degrees in accounting, business, or law.

The film starts with a montage of sound bytes from various writers and reporters, former Enron executives, and others intimately familiar with the Enron case. They rattle off every cliché in the book to explain the greed and selfishness of this major capitalist catastrophe. Together with some fairly obvious song choices and other documentary standard fare, we begin the journey thinking we know exactly what it is that happened at Enron.

But by the end of the film, the sheer audacity, the dishonesty, and the indifference these executives showed toward their ethical responsibilities, goes far beyond what we thought we knew about this case.

At 110 minutes, a film that is essentially about accounting malpractice runs the risk of exhausting an audience. But Gibney, working with top cinematographer Maryse Alberti, takes us beyond a film about business ethics ( or lack thereof) to the greater allegory it reveals. Artful cinematography, revealing Senate testimonies by key Enron officials, and a pop score keep the film moving,, with Peter Coyote providing explanatory narration when necessary. If I didn't know better, this could be an entertaining Hollywood fabrication. It is a film about greed, deception, machismo - the only things missing are the love interest and the happy ending.

Sadly, the film is nonfiction and the men depicted did either commit fraud or comply with it. But what really commands our attention is the how. How did this happen? Just as a serial killer often consciously leaves clues that eventually lead to his arrest, the perpetrators of the Enron fraud also left clues. The problem is no one looked. Fictitious business partners with names like "M. Yass" (put the two words together to make two new words) and "M. Smart" (as in Maxwell Smart of TV's "Get Smart"); company slogans like "Ask Why;" all are clues revealed to us in hindsight, but no one seems to have gotten these hints at the time.

Likewise, the film also reveals corporate training videos which almost flat out tell anyone watching that the company was engaged in something far more corrupt than "creative" bookkeeping.

The strong subject matter and fascinating characters are supported by high production values and visual and musical metaphors. Although at times these very same qualities can become self-conscious, the overall film is an illuminating experience. Rather than leaving us depressed and defeated, it leaves us looking for more answers, angry, but motivated to do just what former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling and Chairman Ken Lay ask us to do - "Ask why."