Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

Seeing Michael Douglas return as his iconic character, Gordon Gekko, is quite a thrill. Whenever he's on the screen, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps is completely engaging. It's the rest of the time when he's not that the movie drags its feet. Though this is a passable follow up to Oliver Stone's classic 1987 film about financial corruption, the film lacks bite and energy when Douglas is not around, which unfortunately is all too often for half the film.

The film begins with Gekko being released from prison in 2001 after serving an eight year sentence for insider trading. He steps into an uncertain world, with no one outside to greet him, and the limo parked out front is there to pick up a common criminal, also getting out, who has family and wine waiting for him. We want to see Gordon adapt to the new world, but the movie casts him aside for a long period, opting instead to focus on the 2008 stock market meltdown that led to the bailout package. It's here that we meet the film's central focus, Jake Moore (Shia LaBeouf). Jake is a hot shot whiz on the market, and student to the wise old mentor at his firm, Louis Zabel (Frank Langella). He also just happens to be engaged to Gordon's daughter, Winnie (Carey Mulligan). Jake wants to meet his future father-in-law (Winnie wants nothing to do with him, blaming most of her family's problems on her father), and begins arranging meetings with Gordon behind Winnie's back.

Meanwhile, things at Jake's firm are not going well. A rival by the name of Bretton James (Josh Brolin) takes advantage of Louis' recent misfortunes, and offers an ultimatum for his firm. Distraught, Louis decides to make a rather dramatic exit in front of a group of spectators waiting for the morning subway train. Knowing that Bretton is responsible for his mentor's suicide, Jake vows revenge, and turns to Gordon (who has a history with Bretton) for help. He agrees to help, but only if Jake will reunite him with his estranged daughter. It's no secret that Gordon has something else up his sleeve. Is he really just a man who wants to redeem himself in the eyes of his daughter, or is he up to more? The movie itself seems a little bit confused, as it portrays the character of Gordon in a lot of different lights in each scene. Douglas' performance is flawless, but the screenplay by Allan Loeb (The Switch) and Stephen Schiff (True Crime) seems conflicted at how to portray him.

And yet, he is easily the most interesting character in Money Never Sleeps. At least he seems to have dimensions, which is more than I can say for most of the other characters who walk through the story. Jake makes for a rather dry young hero, and as played by Shia LaBeouf, never quite grabs our attention like he should. He seems far too tame and timid, and never quite risky enough. This point is rammed home even more when we get a brief cameo by Charlie Sheen, returning as his character from the first film, Bud Fox. Likewise, Jake's relationship with Winnie often comes across as being stilted, as they never generate any real passion in their scenes together. The performances that do stand out, outside of Douglas, are the smaller ones, such as Langella as the doomed mentor, or Susan Sarandon as James' mom, a real estate agent facing hard times in a collapsing house market. Josh Brolin gets a couple good scenes as the slimy Bretton, but he disappears for long periods, and never gets to make as much of an impression as he should.

The end result is uneven. There are some great scenes placed throughout, and some standout performances, but it never turns into a truly successful whole. It's never bad, it's simply passable, and we expect more than that. What's perhaps the worse offense is Stone's decision to use a lot of gimmicky eye-catching film style choices that are completely unnecessary and take us out of the film. He uses split screen, multi-screen, computer graphics, CG animation acting as visual aids, and other such tricks that distract us when we just want to focus on the characters. He also uses some heavy-handed symbolism, such as children's bubbles floating in the air when characters are talking about, you guessed it, financial bubbles. There were a lot of times when I found myself wishing that Stone would just let the material talk for itself, rather than giving us distracting visual aids.

So, yeah, it's great to catch up with a character like Gordon Gekko, but the movie that surrounds him could have and should have been a lot better. Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps just lacks the energy to make it a film of its time, like the original was to the 80s. If you really want to compare the two films, the original ended on a note of some uncertainty. This movie ties everything up with an ending that feels forced, drawn out, and false. It's not so much a sign of the changing of the times, but a sign that Stone is losing his edge as a director.

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