Too Big to Fail (film)

Too Big to Fail is a 2011 American biographical drama television film directed by Curtis Hanson and written by Peter Gould, based on Andrew Ross Sorkin's 2009 non-fiction book of the same title. It aired on HBO on May 23, 2011, and runs 98 minutes. The film dramatizes the 2008 financial crisis, following the collapse of Lehman Brothers after its search for a buyer failed, and the efforts of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, played by William Hurt, and Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke, played by Paul Giamatti, to steady the banking system by rescuing AIG and winning congressional support for the Troubled Asset Relief Program. The wider cast includes Billy Crudup, Edward Asner, Topher Grace, Cynthia Nixon, Bill Pullman, Tony Shalhoub and James Woods. It received 11 nominations at the 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards, and Giamatti won a Screen Actors Guild Award for his performance. On Rotten Tomatoes it holds a 74 percent approval rating.