Review of Wall Street (1987) by Divtactics — 18 Mar 2011

I had heard a fair amount about Wall Street in the past and had dismissed it as likely being more or less what it did end up being: interesting, but not absorbing. I wanted to have watched it, though, to provide context for when I eventually watch Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, and the fact that it stars Charlie Sheen made it all the more relevant and fascinating.

Charlie, as Bud Fox, is in nearly every scene of the movie, and given recent events it was hard to watch for anything other than his performance. Having watched and enjoyed Platoon last year, though, I wasn't really surprised that he performed quite well.

He was dark and brooding and very intense, and more or less nailed the role, even intermittently causing me to forget that I was watching Charlie Sheen. Michael Douglas also did a fantastic job at embodying the ruthless, unscrupulous character he was portraying.

That character, in turn, embodied the tone and the overarching theme of the movie, most notably with his famous "greed is good" speech. In fact, Michael Douglas was awarded the Academy Award for Best Actor for this role, and I would say deservedly so, although I haven't seen any of the other performances that were nominated that year.

Martin Sheen was also great as Bud's father, but his casting made it so that, again, examining the acting - in this case Charlie and Martin's father-son dynamic - was more interesting than watching the actual movie.

Add that to Charlie's mere presence, Darryl Hannah's lack of charm, wit, or sexiness as Bud's love interest, and the laughable 80's-style art, decor, fashion and technology that featured in the movie and it made for an overwhelming number of distracting factors that precluded any real immersion in the movie itself.

In the end though, the main distracting factor - studying Charlie Sheen - is also the most compelling reason to watch, at least at this point in time. Combine that with Michael Douglas' performance and Wall Street becomes quite a worthwhile viewing experience.

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