The original Wall Street, an exposé of stock market trader greed and corruption, hit audiences in 1987 at just the right time, a month or two following the decimating Black Monday crash. Oliver Stone’s Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps attempts to follow recent financial trends (albeit a couple of years after the fact this time) with mixed results.
Picking up some two decades after the previous installment, the new film follows honorable, nice-guy Jake Moore (Shia LaBeouf), a New York stock broker devoted to raising investment funds for green energy. Tragedy strikes when Moore’s Wall Street mentor Louis Zabel (Frank Langella) commits suicide after unfounded rumors force the sale of his firm to sneaky investment banker Bretton James (Josh Brolin). Moore, of course, wants retribution — one that would at least stop the ghostly superimposition of Zabel on screen when Moore thinks about him.
Matters are further complicated with the arrival of Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas). Out of prison and seemingly guilt-ridden, Gekko offers personal and professional advice in exchange for help reconnecting with his estranged daughter, Winnie (Carey Mulligan), whom Moore is set to marry. Moore’s business and personal interests become intertwined when James takes an interest in the new, lucrative technology.
Obviously, the cast are uniformly excellent and for fans of the original, Charlie Sheen is featured in a brief cameo. There is certainly an authenticity and attention to minutiae in the film’s Wall Street and bank dealings, businesses and practices, but to a fault. When dramatic license is finally taken at the end of the picture, events seem rushed and unbelievable. A villain is revealed to the public and ousted when the posting of an essay published on a small internet site goes viral; another character feels a pang of guilt and has their abhorrent actions seemingly forgiven and forgotten a scene or two later.
The camerawork isn’t as dynamic this time out either. In the original Wall Street, the lens sprinted down the aisles of stockbrokers, spinning around them. Audiences witnessed the central characters’ lives and fortunes being won and lost walking a dangerous tightrope, attempting to elude authorities while using unconfirmed and potentially faulty insider information. These elements created a real sense of forceful urgency.
In Money Never Sleeps, most shots remain relatively static in comparison and many plot twists are exposed after the fact through over explanatory dialogue. A few of these reveals could be effective, but too many important events are relayed via exposition. This leaves the viewer wishing they had seen the big plays, experienced the tension and drama behind attempting to pull a scheme off, and not simply having the important moves explained to them through well-acted but lengthy speeches.
The critiques of bank deregulation and citizen overspending, resulting in the current financial crisis, is cleverly argued. This is particularly apparent during Gekko’s speaking engagement on leveraging debt and its inevitable consequences. But at times the film feels too much like a dry business school lecture and not a dramatic narrative.
Unfortunately, talented director Oliver Stone doesn’t adopt more of a “show, don’t tell” approach, so the film’s ideas are not presented in a particularly vital or exciting way. It seems a little too appropriate that the band playing over the end credits of Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps is Talking Heads. Never has a film been filled with so many.
2.5 out of 5
