Film Review: ‘Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps’ a great director’s mediocre effort

Jordan Wilson

Contributing Writer

Director Oliver Stone’s 1987 film “Wall Street” concerned a young, ambitious stockbroker’s involvement with insider trading through a ruthless, corporate crook named Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas), whose life motto was “Greed is Good.” Now, Douglas again fills the role that won him the Academy Award for Best Actor 23 years ago. Gordon Gekko returns in “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps,” and his timing couldn’t be better.

The film opens with Gekko getting out of prison. No one comes to pick him up, and he is left standing outside the prison yard with his possessions, which include an empty money clip and a mobile phone, circa 1987. Stone immediately establishes that, although there will be drama, there will also be a lot of fun and toying around with Gekko’s social status following his release. Gekko is fascinated to find that Wall Street has essentially adopted all of the greed and immorality that he served time for, and now exploits it openly, legally and on a regular basis. He is older, wiser and more contemplative about time. This change in his character is the most interesting thing about the movie.

Seven years after his release, Gekko arrives in NYC, selling his new book “Is Greed Good?” He also adopts the title as his new motto. Attending the lecture is Jake Moore (Shia LeBeouf,) a young, ambitious stockbroker who somehow admires Gekko—sounds familiar—and who plans to marry his daughter, Winnie (Carey Mulligan). Winnie severed ties with her father after her brother died of a drug overdose years earlier.

Jake is left jobless after his boss and mentor Louis Zabel (Frank Langella) throws himself in front of a train following a sharp drop in his company’s stock. He introduces himself to Gekko, and they soon develop a mentor-protégé relationship. They also begin a regular business transaction that involves Bretton James (Josh Brolin), who caused the downfall in Zabel’s company and Zabel’s suicide. Jake wants revenge for the fatal rumors James spread, and in return for his help, Gekko asks Jake to assist in mending his relationship with Winnie now that he is reformed. Gekko pleads for his daughter’s forgiveness in one scene that is brilliantly acted by Douglas, and he reminds the audience that he really is human at his core.

Shia LeBeouf and Carey Mulligan are actually quite good, but they are greatly upstaged by Douglas, who once again proves that he was born to play this character. He performs effortlessly and with grace. Carey Mulligan, whose work was stunning in last year’s “An Education,” seems to cry in every scene here. It becomes somewhat distracting, but she and LeBeouf form a convincing couple and share some good scenes together.

“Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps” has a fairly strong first half, containing some terrific performances from Frank Langella and Michael Douglas. As expected, Stone weaves fact in and out of fiction and blends the story into our current unsteady economic climate. But what will take audiences by surprise is how withheld the script is from aggressively grabbing the current financial institution by the collar. In this respect, the film loses a lot of the poignancy established by the 1987 original.

At 133 minutes, there is plenty of time to develop an excellent story, but because the script is so restrained, few of the interesting ideas presented are ever addressed in a satisfying manner, with the ending being the case in point. It’s almost as if Stone has thrown in the towel and decided that greed has melded so deeply into our culture that it is now the status quo. He goes with the flow rather than being the incisive rebel who made the great “JFK,” “Born on the Fourth of July” and “Natural Born Killers.” It’s a middling outing for Stone, who hopefully will turn out some more interesting and challenging projects in the future. Grade: C –