“I once said, ‘Greed is good.’ Now… it seems it’s legal.”- Gordon Gekko
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The H-Bomb: It’s 2001, fourteen years after the events in “Wall Street”, and former big shot broker Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) is being released from prison. He’s older now, looking weathered and slightly grizzled, far from the cool, charismatic, amoral reptile-in-a-suit we remember from the original film. In this sequence, Gekko, who was once a self-styled master of the universe, steps out of the prison gates to find that there is absolutely no one waiting to greet him. I could not think of a better opening for this film.
Cut to seven years later, it’s the eve of the 2008 financial meltdown, and young broker Jake Moore (Shia LaBeouf) is mourning the loss of his mentor, Louis Zabel (Frank Langella), who committed suicide after his firm’s stock prices plummeted amid rumors of financial instability and he was forced to sell it for three dollars a share. It’s soon learned that the rumors were false and Moore sets about finding out who was behind spreading them.
Meanwhile, he attends a lecture being held by Gordon Gekko, who is on a tour promoting his new book, “Is Greed Good“. Moore approaches Gekko after the lecture and gets his attention by telling him that he’s engaged to his estranged daughter, Winnie (Carey Mulligan). After taking a “getting to know you” walk with Moore, Gekko, who seems to be a changed man and no longer thinks that money is the most important thing in life, agrees to help Moore find out who sabotaged his mentor in exchange for Moore helping him reconcile with his daughter. But, one must ask the question, has Gekko really changed? And could he have reasons for wanting to reconnect with his daughter other than mending fences?
Oliver Stone‘s “Wall Street” is a film that more or less defined an era, perfectly capturing the attitude and the fallacies of the 80‘s. Like most of Stone’s films, it was compelling, provocative, and portrayed a period of our history to a chilling effect. But when I heard Stone was developing a sequel to his 1987 film, I was somewhat apprehensive.
Let’s be honest, the past decade has not been Mr. Stone’s best. “World Trade Center” was decent, but was shown up by the far superior “United 93”, which came out earlier the same year. “W.” was watchable, but it was also rather superficial and Stone seemed to arrive at the whole Bush bashing party a bit late. As for his would be epic, “Alexander”, that was just a fucking train wreck from beginning to end.
So, in light of all that, I was concerned that Stone, once one of the most important filmmakers in America, was just going back to the well in an act of desperation. The fact that Michael Douglas was returning as Gekko was promising, but the presence of Shia LaBeouf, who annoyed the living fuck out of me in a recent sequel to another long dormant franchise (Indiana Jones), didn’t exactly instill much confidence in this film.
However, being an H-Man who always shoots straight, I shall be honest and admit that I was dead wrong. “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps” is engaging, entertaining, and much like its predecessor, it couldn’t be more relevant to the time when it was made, given the way Wall Street has gone down the shitter in the past couple of years. But the movie isn’t really about the meltdown and the bailouts, it’s all merely a backdrop for the characters and their stories.
I doubt this will be the defining film of a generation the way the original was, but it is still one hell of a good movie… most definitely Stone’s best in the past fifteen years. It could’ve simply been a lazy rehash of the original, but it isn‘t. It’s set in the same cut throat corporate world, but it has its own story to tell.
Jake Moore shares similarities with the first film‘s protagonist, Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen, who reprises his role in a weirdly funny cameo). They are both very young, ambitious, and naive. But while Fox was a low level broker who made a deal with the devil in order to make it to the big leagues, Moore is already a success whose main goal is to fund research in Eco-friendly energy technology, where he believes there is quite a bit of money to be made. But to him, it’s not just about the money, it’s about what he feels is right. He is also genuinely in love with Winnie Gekko, and while he lies to her at several points, he does so because he believes he’s protecting her. To me, he came across as a much more sympathetic lead than Fox.
LaBeouf is actually very good as the young Moore. Yes, he bugged the shit out of me in “Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”, but I think that had more to do with the fact that Mutt Williams was just an annoying, whiney, bitch-boy of a character. Here, he has a far richer, much more believable role to play, and he manages to hold his own against Douglas quite admirably.
Gordon Gekko’s part is very different this time around. Back in ’87, he practically ran Wall Street. Here, for most of the film, he’s on the outside looking in. Seeing Douglas in his Oscar winning role again after 23 years is a real treat. He slides right back into Gekko’s skin and inhabits this ever calculating character completely. There’s one scene, where he’s having a one-on-one with his daughter, where he shows an emotional side that was never seen in the first film. That, I found interesting.
Speaking of his daughter, I think Stone made a real discovery with Mulligan. She’s appealing, down-to-earth, intelligent, strong, and vulnerable, and she plays all these qualities well. At first she seems unreasonable in how she stonewalls her father’s attempts at reconciliation, but we come to find that she has her reasons for being wary of him.
A character I haven’t talked about yet is the villain of the piece, Bretton James, who is played impeccably by Josh Brolin. He’s yet another shady, manipulative broker who just oozes venom, and as we come to find out, has a complicated past with Gekko. He truly embodies the kind scum sucking douche bag that audiences love to loathe, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see his name come up for Best Supporting Actor consideration this awards season.
Another potential contender in that category would have to be Langella, who makes the most of his limited time as Moore’s mentor and father figure. He is pitch-perfect as a once proud man who is now broken inside. I also think it’s no coincidence that his character’s first name is Louis, which was the name of Stone’s father, who was himself a Wall Street broker.
Stone, who is now in his mid-60’s, is as solid a storyteller as he’s ever been, with a sharp eye for visuals and a strong sense of pacing. For the most part, he shoots the film in a straightforward way, though there are scenes where he goes into split screen montages, much like he did in the first film. It’s a way of getting a lot of information to the audience in as little time as possible, and it works. There’s one unfortunate scene involving a phone conversation where Stone makes a stylistic editing choice that’s just weird and distracting… you’ll know it when you see it.
Overall, this turned out to be a much better sequel than I anticipated. It works well both as a compelling drama, and as a commentary of the times we’re living in. For me, the film did falter a little at the end. It’s a sappy, schmaltzy ending that’s out of step with everything that came before it, but fortunately, it doesn‘t ruin the picture. Though this is a sequel, you don’t necessarily have to be familiar with the original in order to follow it, but it’s preferable if you are. It’s difficult to make a film set in the financial world and make it interesting and entertaining, yet Oliver Stone has managed to pull off that feat not once, but twice. This is one of the better films I’ve seen so far this year, and it’s certainly worth a trek to the theater.
