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Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

movies|wall%20street%3A%20money%20never%20sleeps|2010-09-23

Nearly two decades after being imprisoned for insider trading, Gordon Gekko is set free, profiting on his infamy as an author and public speaker. At a time when the market is crumbling and those working on Wall Street are scrambling to catch a break, Gekko is approached by Jacob, a young trader looking for Gekko's guidance. But can a man who once lived by the motto 'if you need a friend, get a dog' really be trusted?

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Editorial

Greed, for lack of a better word, is good enough a reason for Oliver Stone and Michael Douglas to return more than two decades later to their epochal toast to 1980s avarice. The impact of Wall Street (1987) immediately infiltrated the world it imitated. Despite his fate, Gordon Gekko became the emblem of money-makers. Gekko inspired, rather than deterred, many to pursue careers in the stock market.

Though Douglas won an Oscar and Stone made the definitive film about yuppie excess, Wall Street never seemed a candidate for franchise opportunities. But the planet's recent economic freak-out might well have been engineered so Gekko could come back and tell us whether his famous catch-cry foretold a worldwide catastrophe.

Where its predecessor comfortably infused jargon into the core thrust of stockbroker Bud Fox (slick Charlie Sheen) trying to emulate Gekko, Money Never Sleeps routinely loses its way in tangents about backroom meetings, corporate chaos and fiscal haemorrhaging. These well-researched reflections on fresh history could have slotted in richly if Stone hadn't signed off on an episodic plot unsure about its focal point — rising-star trader Jacob Moore (Shia LaBeouf), a fill-in for Fox, differentiated by his interest in "green" energy and Gekko's daughter Winnie (Carey Mulligan).

Eschewing the relative simplicity of Fox aspiring to be Gekko, Moore's busy trajectory stems from a shaky revenge plot after his mentor (Frank Langella) commits suicide when the GFC ignites. However, Moore's beef with Big Bank Boss Man Bretton James (Josh Brolin), and what it leads to, is often incoherent or aimless.

At the same time, born-again snake Gekko is advising Moore while gunning for a reunion with dad-despising Winnie — a radical online journalist! Because the ledger isn't crowded enough, Money Never Sleeps sways its way to a third act boiling over with double-cross, skewerings, heartache and cleaning up.

Ben McEachen