Starring: Michael Douglas, Shia LaBeouf, Carey Mulligan, Josh Brolin, Frank Langella, Susan Sarandon
Directed By: Oliver Stone
Written By: Allan Loeb and Steven Schiff, based on characters created by Stanley Weiser & Oliver Stone
Produced By: Eric Kopeloff, Edward R. Pressman, Oliver Stone
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Rating: PG-13
Running Time: Approximately 133 minutes
Website: wallstreetmoneyneversleeps.com
Budget: $70,000,000
Genre: Drama
Release Date: September 24, 2010
The last time moviegoers saw ruthless banker Gordon Gekko, Michael Douglas’s signature role, was in 1987’s Wall Street, on the hook for insider trading and facing jail time thanks to the machinations of his protégé, Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen). Gekko – merciless, charismatic, and utterly amoral – quickly came to be emblematic of ‘80s excess, earning Douglas a Best Actor Oscar and Gekko a place in the modern pop culture pantheon, complete with accessories (the brick-sized DynaTac “mobile” phone) and a modern classic catch phrase (“Greed… is good”)
Somewhat terrifyingly, Gekko inspired a whole new generation of Wall Street whiz kids, choosing to take the “Greed is Good” mantra to heart rather than the whole “You Will Go to Jail/What You Are Doing is Wrong” aspect. Greed may be good, but as far as economics go, it’s also repetitive. Set on the cusp of the financial meltdown of the 1980s, the original Wall Street was the right movie at the right time, and the 2010 sequel Money Never Sleeps – the subtitle is cribbed from a line in the first film – makes a play for relevance by placing its action at the moment the current economic slide hit in mid-2008.
Gekko is unleashed on this new economy after a long prison stint, and almost immediately reinvents himself as an author, prognosticator, and public speaker – the notorious bad boy of Wall Street. Into his orbit comes Jake (Shia “I’m In Everything” LaBeouf), this year’s model Bud Fox, a scrappy young broker who happens to be dating Gekko’s estranged daughter, Winnie (An Education’s Carey Mulligan). After his mentor (a typically excellent Frank Langella) is ruined by the deceptions of a rival banker, the suits-and-cigars broker Bretton James (Josh Brolin), Jake comes to Gordon looking for the Gekko edge in his vindication.
What follows are a series of manipulations and deceptions, both personal and financial, full of the bravado of rich men and more than a little helping of eye-glazing financial terminology. The market maneuvering is little more than dressing, about as relevant as the scientific explanation in a science fiction movie, complicated gestures to keep the plot moving. The real show, the lure to keep the audience interested, is Gekko. Douglas spends most of the film circling like a shark: it’s unclear whether he’s going to go in for the kill or merely wait until there’s blood in the water to strike. Douglas gives ol’ Gordon the same spark and wit, but 2010 Gordon isn’t the same as 1987 Gordon, a tamer creature that’s possibly playing all sides against each other but still wants a reconciliation with his daughter. Gordon Gekko just might have grown a heart, and it’s to the detriment of his character.
Returning director Oliver Stone, a career of alternately spot-on and crackpot social commentary behind him, fills the film with visual metaphors: bubbles bursting, dominoes falling, paintings of Roman gods devouring their young. Presumably Stone took on the project because he had more to say about capitalism and the “moral hazard” of Wall Street, but the point is the same. This time, like Gekko, a little older and a little less enthusiastic. There’s something cynical about a movie about the perils of the free market bursting with cameos by leathery, real-world socialites and product placement (don’t think we didn’t notice that shameless close-up of the Heineken bottle, Oliver!). The new model of Wall Street isn’t bad, but the sequel only underscores how relevant the points of the first movie remain, decades and a recession or two later. Like I said: Greed is good, but also repetitive.
Grade: 3 stars (out of 5)
