Review of Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010) by Rich C — 13 Dec 2011

In "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps," Jake Moore(Shia LaBeouf) receives a bonus of about $1.5 million from his boss Louis Zabel(Frank Langella) at the investment firm where he works. Jake takes about a third of that to spend on an engagement ring for Winnie(Carey Mulligan), his girlfriend, pretty much ensuring that she will never be able to type again which would be bad, considering she blogs for a living. The other million goes back into the company which is worse because this is September 2008 when the stock market imploded. In response, Bretton James(Josh Brolin) agrees to buy out Zabel for $3 a share, leaving Zabel to jump in front of a downtown local train. Seeking justice, Jake starts by leveraging Winnie for an introduction with her father, Gordon Gekko(Michael Douglas), who has a new book out.

It is perfectly understandable that Oliver Stone would want to comment on the stock market collapse of 2008 while using one of his most notable characters as a way to get back on the A-list himself. So, it is a shame that "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" fails so miserably. Stone has lost his talent for pacing(Come back, Andy Summers. All is forgiven.) but not his talent for sermonizing. While he is right on the subject of speculation(which I also read about in today's Newsday), he does not bother to try to connect this to the renewable energy storyline(cold fusion?!?) which he could have done easily enough by talking about the hidden costs of supposedly easy profits. What was also a bad idea was casting Shia LaBeouf, a complete non-entity, in the lead.(Just because someone stars in a blockbuster or 3, does not mean he can act.) And considering Winnie is a blogger, it would have been nice to have heard her opinion on anything except for her family issues, leaving her to be little more than a plot device. I know Gekko is supposed to have changed while in prison but so much that he would ride the subway? In fact, I was starting to lose interest as the movie almost gets mushy around the subject of lost fathers and nostalgic which is strange considering capitalism, as symbolized by Wall Street, has always been about rapacious greed.