Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

2010. Dir: Oliver Stone. Starring: Michael Douglas, Shia LaBeouf, Josh Brolin, Carey Mulligan and Eli Wallach. ●●○○○



When the producers first considering a belated sequel to 1987's Wall Street the probably envisioned a searing look at both the insatiable greed and the obscene politics that created the financial meltdown of 2008. By resurrecting the anti-hero of the previous film - yuppie iconoclast Gordon Gekko as performed to oscar winning effect by Michael Douglas - they had a ready made sneering villain all they needed was Oliver Stone to bring back his righteous anger. Unfortunately Allan Loeb and Stephen Schiff's screenplay humanises Gekko and muzzles Stone leaving Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps a pale (even dull) imitation of it's predecessor.



As in 1987 the plot follows a young man torn between father figures. In 1987 it was Charlie Sheen (who has a fun cameo with a bitter aftertaste) who couldn't decide between following his father's (literally it's Martin) airline mechanic or Gekko's example of insider trading. Here it's Shia LaBeouf tossing his loyalties between old school trader Frank Langella, corporate shark Josh Brolin, fusion physicist Austin Pendleton and Douglas. However where Sheen could show the struggle and the script clearly delineated the two opposing forces here all of the potential father figures come with the same set of pros and cons and LaBeouf is unable to present the emotional burden placed upon him.

Shia's failure to convince with each of these relationships, as well as the ones with his mother (Susan Sarandon) or leftwing blogger girlfriend (Carey Mulligan) is a major issue with the movie. I honestly don't know why LaBeouf keeps getting high profile roles with quality directors; when did he put in a good performance? Personally I'd say he was quite good in 2003's Holes but it's been decidedly downhill since then.

This isn't the only problem. One of the main reasons that Gekko worked so well in the original was because whilst he was a gloriously quotable bastard there was a clear legal line he stepped over when insider trading. The most recent crash was perfectly legal if morally dubious so the badguys, mainly the superbly oily Josh Brolin but also his mentor Eli Wallach grunting and whistling through his lines with aplomb, are repugnant but have to resort to same crimes as Gekko in order to be punished.

The script even sits back from fully condemning Wall Street, clearing pointing out it doesn't fully understand all the concepts involved with these high end debt products but regularly reminding them of the values involved.

Most distressingly Gekko is given a heart. The plot contrives to make Carey Mulligan Gekko's estranged daughter (there's also a son who committed suicide!) so there's plenty of making up for Gordon to do, whilst he's still double dealing on all of the other characters. The final scene in particular (there are others but thy aren't always what they seem) involves Douglas making a number concessions to the character, and there are many occasions when Gekko insists he's human.

The film isn't all bad - Douglas does remind us how good his performance was in the original and the costumes are gorgeous and obscene. Director Oliver Stone does his best with the flat script using splitscreen and CGI to jazz up the trading a the use of Goya's Saturn devouring his Son is exemplary but the blunt visual motifs usually fail bubbles and dominoes among them.

Overall I would say this is a film worth missing. Just rent out the original for a far more invigorating look at the wolves in our financial services industry.