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Director: Oliver Stone
Starring: Michael Douglas, Carey Mulligan, Shia LaBeouf, Frank Langella, Josh Brolin, Susan Sarandon.
Warning: I’m no money-expert. I know the economy sucks. I’ve heard of Enron and Bernie Madoff but I cannot make brilliant comparisons in this film.
I’m on the fence about this one. I know, I know…is it good or bad? Both. A film about bucks makes me grit my teeth but it is well done. Stone wants to comment on the evilness of this world. I willingly went along for the ride.
Plot or Alrighty then: As the global economy teeters on the brink of disaster, a young Wall Street trader partners with disgraced former Wall Street corporate raider Gordon Gekko on a two-tiered mission: To alert the financial community to the coming doom, and to find out who was responsible for the death of the young trader’s mentor. (IMDB)
I was thinking, I see Shakespearean plays and even though it’s in English, the lingo is difficult. I can analyze the drama though. There was a woosh-factor in this film, but a big family drama plays out against the financial backdrop. In general, one does not need an education about high-finance or trading to understand this film.
Michael Douglas reprises his role as Gordon Gekko (1987, Wall Street). Slimy. Geckos are lizards. The reptilian reference is not lost on me. His daughter, Mulligan (Winnie Gekko), despises him but is engaged to someone who values the dollar, a trader played by LaBeouf (Jake Moore). I guess they wanted to be as balanced or as PC as possible: Jake champions clean (Green) energy. To me this was very manipulative and shady script-wise.
Gordon Gekko has been in prison for many years and says that “time” is the only true commodity. However, when presented with a recording of a sonogram of his gestating grandchild, he backs away. Making moola supersedes family. The film justifies his decision.
I rented the original Wall Street and this sequel is different. The 1980s enabled a very different aesthetic in film. The original Wall Street was edgier and courser. It lacked the family drama and was mostly about the corruption in high-finance. The whole “greed is good” thing started there. Wall Street was all about overt financial greed. The television promo for the new film makes it feel raunchier than it is. Hype.
The world of high-finance has many metaphors in this film. For instance, children make bubbles which burst. The world is a crumbling soap-bubble. Gordon and Jake are in an out of control taxi. Like the economy, they are powerless to alter what is happening. While the world may be foreign to me, it evoked high-drama.
The financial crisis of 2007 to the present is a crisis triggered by a liquidity shortfall in the United States banking system. It has resulted in the collapse of large financial institutions, the bailout of banks by national governments and downturns in stock markets around the world.
The crisis is reflected in the film: It comes across more like some sort of PBS documentary about how exactly the banking crisis came about and why the decisions to bail out the banks were made. We see meetings at the Federal Reserve where the whole thing is laid out – why the banks needed to be bailed out, the catastrophe that would have followed had the first bank collapsed and others followed (worse than the Great Depression!). – ScreenRant
Shia LaBeouf may be the ‘it boy’ of the moment but he can really act. I don’t think that his action flicks show-cased that. (In 2007, he starred in Transformers, and the following year he appeared in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull as Indiana’s son.) I loved Carey Mulligan in An Education (2009) – but here she was weak. Close-ups do not replace emotion. Michael Douglas – fabulous. Susan Sarandon – amazing. Josh Brolin – so convincing and evil.
So, the young trader befriends Gekko behind the daughter’s back. Jack lies to his fiancé and is ultimately punished. It is in the social, not financial, realm where morality resides. Jake’s mother continually borrows money from him. Jake’s business is lending money but he angrily tells his mother to get a job. He ultimately saves his mother by not lending her money. The irony.
I believe that this film is balanced for the most part. My impulse is to reject it out-rightly. I mean a film about money…but there is more going on here.
The world of high-finance is intriguing and I believe that this film allows us to take a peek at that world. The family drama is solid but predictable. It is humbling to see Oliver Stone’s work. His direction is excellent. I really do not feel that there is a comment on the mighty dollar here. Also, the film itself needs to make loads of money to be successful. Essentially – good acting. Not a great movie but good. I might have issues with the world the film is set in but this film works and it’s not about me.
Romy Shiller is a pop culture critic and holds a PhD in Drama from the University of Toronto. Her academic areas of concentration include film, gender performance, camp and critical thought. She lives in Montreal where she continues her writing. All books are available online.
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