The title of this compelling documentary, about the drive and determination required of women who succeed in the jungle of Wall Street finance, suggests an examination of the Ying and Yang of the occupation. Women are asked, even compelled, to make choices and sacrifices that traditionally their male counterparts have not been required to make. Aside from an anecdote about the addition of a women’s room at the NYSE, there is little discussion about gender issues. Instead, we get a revealing look at some pretty unattractive traits that emerge to spell success, whether for men or women, in this lucrative and questionable pursuit. Questionable because it remains pretty unclear what true value is added by manipulating other people’s money.

What we see is a breed of woman who, smart as they are, are astonishingly myopic about the freedom of their chains. The film follows four women in 2001 through the daily ups and downs of their profession. Louise is a floor trader with her own company who became fascinated with the game before she was out of high school. Abandoned when she was two days old, she developed an early drive to make money. Kim came from a mining town in West Virginia, was the only person in her high school class to go to college, and is still in awe of her rise to a top Wall St. position. Carol’s early swimming triumphs ignited the flame of competition. What seems to elude her is the reality that she does not have it all. Her drive seems more like an addiction than a source of contentment. Pregnant when we meet her, Carol’s children and husband seem more like props than people who are important to her. It appears to be no coincidence that in scenes where her family is present, the toddlers are either being shooed out of her office at home, receiving a pacifier from the cold perch of an infant seat, or being prompted by Dad to speak words of congratulations on Mom’s promotion.

The most balanced and not coincidentally likeable of the four is Louise, who enjoys her success but makes a conscious and sensible choice to accept the limitations. With her longtime companion, she decides to have a child. Almost immediately, she shifts gears toward this new full time job. Not so for Kim, who is entertaining a job offer that will take her away from her preschool twins even more. Finally, we meet rookie Umber. She is a student and an intern at Morgan Stanley who is scarily on an obsessive career hunt and weighing her entire future and self worth on whether she can harvest a sufficient number of job offers to feel truly wanted. On September 11, 2001 as Louise feeds her baby, she hears what sounds like a big bomb and turns her video camera out her kitchen window to capture the WTC billowing in smoke. This event and its aftermath reshape slightly the viewpoint of all four women as it relates to their careers but surprisingly does not prompt any reevaluating of the balance in their lives.

The filmmakers do not editorialize and the neutral stance of the camera wisely lets viewers draw their own conclusions. Kim expresses her fantasy that she will have a few seven-figure years and be able to quit. Success on the job is equated with power and independence. Nonetheless, these woman seem as chained to their 6 AM commuter trains, 85 thousand annual miles in travel, or child birth scheduled around a deal, as their grandmothers were to the kitchen sink. Maybe they will grasp that golden parachute and bail out before stress related diseases kick in, but the golden handcuffs seem more likely. They worry that the nanny will be the one their children bond with, while their supportive husbands make unspoken pleas. The risks seem more predictable than the rewards and the filmmakers’ viewpoint is not unsympathetic. Still, the suggestion that the high financial rewards for what they do (skills that would not be on anyone’s top ten list to be stranded on a desert island with) may be based on an unwholesome process in human terms.