--George Michael Bluth
I have been disappointed by Oliver Stone more times than I care to share. Yet somehow I just cannot stop watching his films, most of which are terrible attempts at historical drama. So if you take Oliver Stone’s directorial career and put his movies on a rating line with Alexander at one end representing the worst of his movies and JFK and Nixon on the other end for the best of his career and everything else falling in between. Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps can sit safely in the middle. To put it simply this film was two hours and seven minutes of meh. But this movie really had so much potential and just couldn’t quite live up to it.
The movie takes place roughly two years ago (that’s 2008 for those of you who are numerically challenged). Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas: Traffic, Wall street, The Game) has been released from prison and is picking up the pieces of his life. His estranged daughter Winnie Gekko (Carey Mulligan: An Education, Pride and Prejudice, Public Enemies) is getting engaged to Jake (or Jacob, because it changed every other time they said his name) Moore a young, hungry, stockbroker played by Shia LaBeouf (Transformers, Eagle Eye, Constantine). This awkward love triangle and its generally poor acting is supported by a cast of greats including Frank Langella (Frost/Nixon, Good Night and Good Luck, Junior); Josh Brolin (W., No Country for Old Men, The Goonies, Milk); Susan Sarandon (Bull Durham, Elizabethtown, The Lovely Bones); and Eli Wallach (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, The Holiday, Keeping the Faith). Even Charlie Sheen makes a cameo as his character Bud Fox from the original Wall Street.
Douglas jumped right back into his role as Gekko and did a wonderful job, especially considering that he expected people to not trust him throughout the movie (both the characters and the audience) and he does a tremendous job of really trying to pull you back into his corner, even if you want to hold him at arms length. Mulligan and LaBeouf really struggled to have any on-screen chemistry, which can easily be attributed to LaBeouf’s terrible acting. He really has not improved since he left Even Stevens; clearly it was not all Meagan Fox’s fault that both Transformers movies were awful. Okay Michael Bay played a huge hand in those multi-million dollar travesties too. Sorry, got off track, those films still anger me.
Anywho, Gekko was one small bright spot in the film. The supporting cast another, because the completely jumped into their roles head first and really took the care to make their characters their own, which as I mentioned earlier was in stark contrast to the main characters’ short comings. But, I think one of my favorite parts about the movie was the entire motif in which the film was designed. Despite being a modern criticism of US and global economic practices and using actual events as the setting of the film, Stone was constantly making homage to the excess of the 1980s and made it clear that he wanted Wall Street and all of the executives who profited from the deception of others, to look as if they were living their lives trapped in a time of financial boon and that on a social level they were oblivious to the actual financial crisis while they were out of the office. Even the soundtrack, which consisted entirely of David Byrne/Talking Heads and Brian Eno songs served to set a very 1980s mood. Stone also utilized the fear mongering and rumors that the media and Wall Street used to create a greater scare as a primary plot device and motivator for the film. But sadly he didn’t take it far enough.
He still fell back on wrapping everything up nicely where everyone lives happily ever after with the exception of the one bad guy who made sure he profited at everyone’s expense including his own. However, even the old executives still made it out clean and their lives were turning around, which can be social commentary on its own, but it was too clean and polished by the end. This Wall Street really lacked that strong “dust settling moment” at the end of the film where people try and pick themselves up from the rubble. You find yourself waiting and waiting and it never comes. However, Stone’s biggest failure was his attempt at artistic metaphor. He constantly kept referring to Goya’s “Saturn Devouring His Son” from Goya’s late Black period. I have seen the painting at the Prado in Madrid and it is a very haunting painting, but Stone only uses it at face value to demonstrate the darkness of the times and Wall Street’s tendency to destroy anything to maintain power. Stone did not fully extend this to Gekko other than him taking money away from his daughter and his future son-in-law. He did not cripple them and he was not eventually taken down the way Saturn was taken down by Jupiter in the end. Nope, by the end of the movie nothing happens to Gekko, he profits and remains out of trouble and the story ends. Very disappointing.
Overall, a valiant effort to pick up where Wall Street left off and make it a film that holds some salient value in today’s world. I find that the movie as a form of social criticism could have gone farther instead of eventually falling in line with everything the media and Washington D.C. have already told us. Moreover, the financial crisis issues increasingly became a mere backdrop for a poor excuse of a love story, which hindered it overall quality as a film. Other films have done it so much better. If you really liked the original film I would see this one for novelty’s sake but if your looking for a biting social critique and a great fictional tale, Instead go rent the original Wall street and pick up a copy of the New York Times or Wall Street Journal.
Making the Grade
Acting: While Shia LaBarf and Carey Mulligan struggled through the entire film, Michael Douglas and the rest of the supporting cast were all around excellent, demonstrating greed, false hope and everything that Wall Street has truly become. B-
Special Effects/Visuals: Stone needs to stop trying to get overly artistic with his camera work, for a straightforward historical-fiction based film, the drama should already be built in and the camera work should not have to be the driving force of the tension. Or at least trying to be that driving force. There were one or two scenes that did wow me though. D+
Music: The soundtrack was great Byrne and Eno are two of the greater voices of their generation and their art-rock, glam-rock genre. The music suited the film nicely, though there are points taken off for the use of “This Must be the Place (Naïve Melody)” by the Talking Heads. It has become the most cliché, feel-good-at-the-end-of-a-film song and is not the last thing I want to hear at the end of any movie. B+
Re-Watchability: As I said before. Meh. I really only see this movie being re-watched if you were watching the original Wall Street and this one back to back for novelty sake. It doesn’t provide and explanation or possible answer to the current financial crisis so it probably won’t be too socially or culturally relevant in a few years time. While enjoyable once, it is also entirely forgettable too. D
Overall Grade: C-
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