A powerful and prophetic meditation on greed and the human condition.
In spite of being labeled unethical, unpatriotic and, as of recent years, unaccomplished, Oliver Stone has made a noble cinematic monument for the American people. A sequel to his 1987 film Wall Street, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps is relevant, powerful and, perhaps, the most morally challenging movie of the year thus far. While not void of cynicism, it tells a moral and political tale of hope—one that is unapologetic in message, but uncompromising in story—for the person and the country.
In the first film, Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) famously said “greed is good.” After serving an eight-year prison sentence for malfeasance and insider trading, he’s returned to the world putting the same words into question via his new book, “Is Greed Good?” As it appears—with the white-haired, tired-eyed con leaving prison with no one to return to and giving honest speeches about a failing system—Gekko doesn’t think so anymore. He seems to have changed, humbled by his experience in the pen, awakened to the realities of corporate greed.
And now that he’s reformed, Gekko wants to make things right with his daughter, Winnie (Carey Mulligan), who resents him for abandoning the family and blames him for her brother’s suicide. So when her boyfriend Jake (Shia LeBeouf), an ambitious Wall Street trader, comes into his life seeking advice about avenging his mentor’s death, which is connected to the crashing market and the scams of billionaire raider Bretton James (Josh Brolin), Gekko agrees to help in exchange for a renewed relationship with his daughter.
Winnie, busy with her aspiring leftwing website and talk of marriage, knows nothing of the agreement, and she wouldn’t be too pleased if she did. After walking out on dinner with her father, she tells Jake that her dad will only hurt them if they get too close. Jake doesn’t see it. He’s convinced that Gekko is different now, but he’s also diverted by a new relationship that is helping him climb the social ladder and take down Bretton James. And when Gekko tells him that Winnie has $100 million to her name sitting in a Swedish bank, he becomes even more blinded.
While seemingly sincere, Gekko clearly has an agenda. He says and does all the right things, but something about him still doesn’t seem right. His redemption is too convenient, and his previous words hang over his head: “Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed in all of its forms has marked the upward surge of mankind,” he said in the first movie. Though apparently transformed, that callous, voracious Gekko of the past cannot be erased or forgotten. His greed lingers on.
Stone, as with the original, hammers away this theme of greed throughout the film. Using the recession and government bailouts as his backdrop, he explores it both micro and macrocosmically. In an early scene which takes place at a university campus, Gekko lays it all out from a political and economical perspective, lecturing about fraudulent business practices that are leading to economic collapse, while Jake sits captivated in the audience.
The first Wall Street, in many ways, pinned the problem of greed on capitalism and a free market society. Stone doesn’t go that route in his sequel. In fact, he doesn’t really side with a particular political ideology; he sides with morality. Stone seems to have a better understanding of where the problem lies—not in some economic system but, instead, the heart of humankind. This becomes apparent in a conversation between Gekko and Jake, in which Gekko tells the young trader that, for him, it’s not about money; it’s about pride, moving the issue to a deeper truth about conceit.
Because of such attention to human fault, Stone will be—and already has been—dubbed a cynic, allegedly painting America in a hopeless light. But even though he’s been guilty of this in the past, with Money Never Sleeps it’s simply not the case, specifically because of the way the story plays out. The film doesn’t merely criticize corporate America and individual voracity; it presents a solution to the current times as it replaces greed with love, family and forgiveness.
This point is illustrated in the symbolism of bubbles. Economic bubbles get their name for being just what they are (bubbles). They’re temporary and unpredictable. They come. They go. Stone uses this imagery and metaphor to depict the very thing individuals, here Wall Street traders, put their hope in: what the Book of Ecclesiastes considers to be vanity. As a Buddhist, Stone doesn’t redirect the notion to God, but the truths he presents point toward Him, nonetheless.
As this suggests, Money Never Sleeps is definitely moralizing, but because it’s so well made it never feels overly preachy. The message by no means outshines the story; they work hand in hand. Stone’s blockbuster style lacks sophistication—and always has—but it’s perfect for capturing his narrative in the big way it was intended to be. In the opening sequence and transition scenes, New York City is brilliantly and boldly showcased with shots capturing the city from a grand perspective, with the camera weaving through the streets and skyscrapers.
These big, busy visuals are precisely contrasted by an array of honest turns. In the lead role LeBeouf, who seemed like a gamble in such a major role, not only gives a convincing performance, but he also carries the movie as a young man wedged between two selves. Douglas, of course, brings a great deal of sincerity to his part despite playing more of a minor character than suspected, and similarly, Mulligan and Brolin both perform distinctively while not being seen quite enough.
Money Never Sleeps packs such a heavy punch that a few missteps (specifically Susan Sarandon’s character) prove to not be too problematic. Convicting, captivating and arguably one of the year’s best, Stone’s sequel is the kind of movie that leaves a person reexamining religion, politics and America—the kind of movie we need more of.
David Roark is a film critic for RELEVANT and Dallas Morning News. Check out his blog and follow him on Twitter.
