By Michael Avila
DNAinfo.com Contributor
MANHATTAN — "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" has a tough act to follow, after the original "Wall Street" came to define the money-crazed mentality of a generation of aspiring Masters of the Universe.
But in an era scarred by Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff, does anyone really care what happened to Gordon Gekko after he went off to jail? Director Oliver Stone takes a big risk revisiting one of the defining New York movies of the past generation — and the gamble pays off.
Despite being set in 2008, "Money Never Sleeps" maintains a durable currency for people still reeling from the ongoing economic downturn. Like its 1987 predecessor, also directed by Stone, the picture is about betrayal and the payback it sparks.
It’s an effective, compelling diatribe not just against Wall Street bankers, but also the outright greed on Main Street that helped fuel the crisis. Through Stone’s deliberate and somewhat manipulative lens, the villain is revealed to be the flawed financial system, and its henchmen are the cash-grabbing bankers and homeowners.
The hero this time is another aggressive young trader. As Jake Moore, Shia LaBeouf is easier to cheer for than Charlie Sheen was as Bud Fox. Jake may ride a Ducati motorcycle to work and live in a multi-million dollar downtown loft, but he is that rare stockbroker who actually cares about something other than money. He sees alternative energy as not just the next big investing bubble, but as a way to help the planet.
A (very) quick turn of events leaves Jake’s promising career in ruins, and he wants payback. He turns to someone else with an axe to grind — Gordon Gekko, as played (again) by Michael Douglas.
Having served eight years in prison, the onetime corporate bully is a forgotten man, broke and alone. His daughter Winnie (Carey Mulligan) — Jake’s fiancé — has cut him out of his life. Meanwhile, new titans of industry have filled the void he left on Wall Street. In a strange twist of fate, Gekko is the voice of reason in an insanely unbalanced economy. He rails against the reckless debt the companies are accumulating, but his rants are dismissed as those of a convicted felon.
This older, wearier Gekko rents a downtown apartment he can’t afford and wears off-the-rack linen suits. In one scene at the venerable Upper West Side restaurant Shun Lee, he eagerly greets Vanity Fair’s Graydon Carter, only to be embarrassed when Carter doesn’t recognize him.
Douglas does an effortless job of stepping back into the role that won him an Oscar for Best Actor. Just as he did in "Wall Street," Gekko casts a shadow over the entire movie, even in the scenes where he doesn’t appear. Much as he did in the under-appreciated film, "Solitary Man," earlier this year, Douglas informs his performance with a melancholy befitting a man who is a shadow of what he once was.
Gekko is eager to reconnect with his daughter, but perhaps not as much as he wants to regain his past glory. Jake and Gekko need each other, but Jake doesn’t see his potential father-in-law for who he is. "Idealism kills every deal," Jake is warned, but he doesn’t listen.
LaBeouf reminds us that before he fought the Decepticons in "Transformers," he was better known for his acting chops. He holds his own with Douglas in their scenes together. Mulligan also turns in impressive work, as does Josh Brolin as a vindictive billionaire. Frank Langella and Susan Sarandon also make the most of their small supporting parts.
Calling New York City a supporting character has become an annoying cliché for any movie shot here, but it fits the bill with "Money Never Sleeps." The city is indelibly linked with the financial markets, and Stone reflects that with his story and camera work.
A gala ball at the Met captures the glory and the ego of the boom before the bust, with the city’s elite lavishly dressed.
The peaks and valleys of the New York skyline match those of the volatile stock market as the bottom falls out in 2008, and the skyscrapers which house the financial giants are viewed as imposing, insular structures.
Stone places his characters in locations across the city from the UWS to the East Village and of course, lower Manhattan. Even the familiar locations — such as the Wall Street Bull and Sheep’s Meadow in Central Park — feel fresh.
"Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" is far from perfect. But Stone takes a complicated story — it sometimes sounds like we’re watching Bloomberg TV — and distills it into a biting morality tale with a strong warning:
Greed isn’t so good, after all.
