Film Review: Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps
The first Wall Street film brought to light the workings and ambitions of those curious folk known as traders to a world which, until the film’s release, had seen them represented by little more characterisation than a pin stripe shirt while shouting the maxim “buy low, sell high.”
According to Oliver Stone, the film’s director, the first film also inadvertently inspired a number of people to become brokers – a group inspired rather than warned off the “greed is good” world view of the film’s villain, Gordon Gecko.
With Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, director Stone returns with Gecko to explore the collapse of the global banking system, its impact on society’s future and who, if anyone, profits.
It’s a big subject to explore and unlike the first film, which focused on dissecting the culture and values of brokers, there are several groups in play when it comes to the credit crunch.
There are house buyers, who mortgage and remortgage to afford multiple homes and expensive DIY, there are brokers who repackage and sell debt knowing that defaults are likely, there are banks who reach out for government bail outs and then there are also pioneering companies who need capital to continue work on projects that might better mankind.
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps tries to be a very through essay on the credit crunch by tackling all of the above. Kudos has to be given for trying to fit in as much pertinent detail as possible.
The trouble with the film though is with the way the plot has been constructed: Gecko’s release from prison, his desire for reconciling with his daughter through her broker boyfriend, who happens to be seeking revenge on a competitor who also happened to put Gecko in jail, well, it’s just too clunky.
When I was watching the film I got annoyed with the way the film kept poorly transitioning between scenes aimed at explaining or dramatising the collapse of the banking system and those scenes aimed at keeping the central plot moving forward.
The two strands of plot and analysis seem completely distinct – as opposed to the first film, where the audience were steered through the temptation, corruption and downfall that working to a “greed is good” maxim can bring about.
When you leave Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, you get the feeling that you’ve been presented with an important and relevant message, but you’re not sure what that message is.
The incongruity between the plot and the film’s central theme make it hard to unravel and enjoy, unlike the first film.
On the acting front, it’s fun to see Gecko return; Shia LaBeouf tries to look serious by, well, scrunching his eyes, but never comes across as genuinely determined as Charlie Sheen did in the first; Carey Mulligan, who did a stunning job in An Education is merely required to weep on cue.