The Wizard of Lies

The Wizard of Lies chronicles the infamous Wall Street meltdown that was Madoff's Billion Dollar Ponzi scheme in Barry Levinson's woefully flawed but still engaging film. Starring Robert De Niro and Michelle Pffeifer, The Wizard of Lies features a strong cast of seasoned actors that give their best on screen. De Niro particularly is very strong here and gives his best performance in close to a decade. However, the film suffers from a broken and jumbled script that leaves for a somewhat confusing watch.

The film begins with an interview between Madoff and the subsequent author of his unofficial biography. He begins telling the story at the end of the meltdown on the eve of his arrest and starts from there. From here on out, we're told the story in chunks and pieces, from one perspective to another and totally abandons all formality regarding coherent storytelling. Instead, Levinson creates a deeply personal character study that paints Madoff as a sociopath and a white collar criminal mastermind who would rather blame the victim than himself. While it is engrossing to see De Niro as Madoff, it is barely enough to sustain its bloated runtime.

The film is engrossing to watch. There's no denying it but as the minutes ticked by, it all started to feel redundant. It was more so just dragging the entire Madoff family through hell for the remaining hour of the film and it becomes exhausting after awhile. In a way it was very much a Greek tragedy of epic proportions that just didn't seem to end and by the time it decided it wanted to, you were already checked out 10 minutes prior. Despite this, the ending is satisfying for those wanting to see karma at its best or a tragedy at its worst, whatever way you want to look at it.

Overall, The Wizard of Lies is a missed opportunity more so than not. While it is great to see De Niro and Pfeiffer in top forms, it would have been nice to get a more coherent script from a story that literally writes itself. While anyone expecting a film in the vein of The Big Short will be let down by this, The Wizard of Lies benefits from being a deep character study that shines a (small) light of one of the most tragic mysteries of the 2008 financial crisis.

"In a world full of lies, the most dangerous ones are those we tell ourselves." - Diana Henriques

On March 12, 2009, Bernard Madoff pleaded guilty to 11 federal felonies and admitted to turning his wealth management business into a massive Ponzi scheme.

But to describe STUPID, would be the Security Exchange Commission. Madoff said he could have been caught in 2003, but the bumbling Inspector Clouseau's never asked the right questions.

"I was astonished" says Madoff. "They never even looked at my stock records. If investigators had checked with The Depository Trust Company, it would've been easy for them to see. If you're looking at a Ponzi scheme, it's the first thing you do."

Yes, Bernard Madoff is and will always be a dishonest thieving criminal (he's currently serving a life sentence at The FCC Butner in North Carolina). However, when the sh-- hit the fan in 2008 (largely due to the BUSH Administration), the banks and Insurance Companies were actually rewarded with a 700 billion dollar bail out (which was eventually "paid" back at virtually ZERO percent interest)

The moral of the story; When there is GREED, there's always more than just 1 BAD GUY.

The Wizard of Lies is a great television movie with a very well developed plot and a stellar cast. It's a very bleak drama that can be difficult to watch at times, there is really no light at the end of the tunnel here. The actions of Bernie Madoff were inhuman and completely inexcusable, and this film does not try to sugarcoat that in any way. I never read too much in to it and was pleased with how in depth and easy to follow this all was, you do not need to know anything about the events prior to watching this movie.

There really is no character to route for here, which, while it is understandable, is still one of the only majors issues I had. Madoff is, of course, the main character, who we can not possibly sympathise with, and even his wife Ruth and other close friends and relatives are not depicted with any noble traits. While it did not take me out of the movie, it just made me somewhat discomforted watching two hours of several characters I was not routing for.

The cast is tremendous, Robert De Niro delivers one of his greatest performances in years, portraying outstanding depth and characterisation to Madoff. While it could not possibly have been an easy role to take on, he made it look simple. Michelle Pfeiffer is also excellent as Ruth Madoff, a very layered performance, her screen presence in this part was undeniable and whenever she left, I just wanted to see more of her.

It is a discomforting drama that I enjoyed every moment of. An engaging plot and perfect casting, I would recommend The Wizard of Lies to anyone looking for a good drama.

Chronicles the life of Bernie Madoff following the announcement of his Ponzi scheme that put his clients in billions of dollars in dept.

Best Performance: Robert De Niro

Richard Dreyfuss claims first portrayal of this monster, but he made Bernard out to be somewhat approachable, as he talked through the fourth wall and joked about the art of selling a scam. He was good but too likable. DeNiro is one of our great acting treasures and his take is nothing nice at all. In fact, it is impossible to like this man. He is evil here, and while one can have some sympathy for Ruth and her sons, the entire tragedy, almost out of Shakespeare, is well done. It bounces around a bit to the past and present, but easy to follow and under the direction of Barry Levinson, moves smartly. But don't watch this if you want a positive evening - hard film indeed. Shot of whiskey portrayal of a monster.

I wanted more, more of how Bernie Madoff became the man we meet in this film. When we meet him he is already rotten. He is mere months away from his arrest.

There is in Robert DeNiro's portrayal little or nothing to like or empathize with. Or care about. What we have is a true sociopath who is found out early in the film, which forces us to see nothing but the devastation left in his wake.

This is my way of saying there is no story arc. There are no surprises. What flashbacks there are show Madoff in his personal life but always at his worst.

Michelle Pheiffer as Madoff's wife has a small rand unconvincing role. And like her husband, I couldn't care less about her fate. As for the Madoff sons, to some degree this is more their story than anyone else's. And to the degree that I learned quite a bit about them, the film deserves credit.

But that is not enough to warrant its viewing.