By
Morgan P Salvo
Leave it to Oliver Stone to churn out a sequel for Wall Street after 23 years, and an eccentric sometimes compelling flick no less. This time it’s good versus evil under the umbrella of the financial crisis and mortgage debacle. You’d think the politically savvy Stone would be all over this in a JFK conspiracy way, but instead he uses the fall of the American empire to serve as a backdrop for an old-fashioned love story. Stone is far from the psychedelic onslaught of Natural Born Killers and the weird take detached look at George W. Bush in W. But as always, every shot counts. Stone’s best movies are preoccupied with the primal matters of power, honor, loyalty, and disgrace.
Wall Street 2 begins with a quick voice over analogy of bubbles bursting, likened to the origin of the human race. A quick photo montage catches us up to the modern day financial crisis. Returning as greed incarnate Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) is released from prison, in a scene that is both hilarious and sad.
Now ask yourself if this sounds like Oliver Stone territory or not: Gekko is estranged from his daughter, left-leaning blogger Winnie (Carey Mulligan), who wants nothing to do with him. Her fiancé is a Manhattan go-getter Jake Moore (Shia LaBeouf), a trader for Keller Zabel Investments, although his real passion is alternative energy. Tragedy strikes for Jake’s mentor Lou Zabel (Frank Langella) and Zabel's firm collapses. Arrogant Wall Street entrepreneur/manipulator, Bretton James (Josh Brolin) buys the firm for virtually nothing and recruits the promising, Jake who wants revenge. Jake then tries to assist some reconciliation between Winnie and her dad but actually ends up covertly teaming up with Gekko, who has written a best selling expose of Wall Street. Gekko manipulates all those around him, lying in wait and phony humbleness ready to strike.Once again we see the glare of Capitalism and the energy drink guzzling, gambling-addict, trader-junkies playing with our money. But after that, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps is mainly a slow moving melodrama. This flick depends on a smart premise, spelling out the bailouts, fallouts and money schemes that tanked our economy, but still relies on old fashioned movie making to tell a compelling intricate tale, then screws it all up with the cheesiest last five minutes and a feel-good phony-ass Hollywood ending.
Still Stone usually wrings the best performances out of his actors. Mirroring real life, the fact that Douglas has throat cancer and could be battling for his life adds a peculiar sensitivity to the subject matter. The lure of Douglas’ Gekko has its moments of pathos that lends us to believe that this time around he has real heartfelt emotions still we wonder is he on a quest for redemption…or is he maneuvering his way into the next big scam? Douglas’s command of his character and his scenes are the best to watch. Ninety-three year old Eli Wallach looks like a crazed and whistling Chinese wizard. Brolin seamlessly plays the sneering vindictive evil inside trader, screwing over everyone in his path with no remorse. Langella excels as the old-school businessman standing his ground at the precipice of disaster. There’s something inherently wrong with Charlie Sheen in his nervous unconvincing cameo. LaBeouf works in this role but has a “watch me---I’m acting” feel to the performance. Mulligan smiles when she’s happy, tears up when sad and does a good American accent, but the paring with LaBeouf is absolutely unbelievable from the get go. Wall Street 2 has a spunky, laid back soundtrack by David Bynre and Brian Eno and also resurrects the original’s use of Talking Heads’ song “This Must be the Place (Naïve Melody)” for the ending credits.
The Schwarz Churchill firm’s bailout trials and tribulations are thinly veiled as Goldman Sachs’ housing market rip-off. But of course, Stone’s theme is not just money as the root of all evil. That would be too abstract, cold and impersonal for Oliver’s high end romantic, Hollywood-meets-Shakespeare know-how.
It looked like this movie was going to leave us with a feeling of futility and a warped financial philosophy based in truth. What I thought was the final scene and a powerful finale switched gears and took the cornball express to Hollywood happy ending-land. Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps should go back to bed.Feels like Stone cashed in his own chips and furnished his own bailout. Sound familiar?Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps
Starring Michael Douglas, Shia LeBouf, Carrie Mulligan, Josh Brolin
Directed by Oliver Stone
Rated R
2 stars
No comments:
Post a Comment