Walking out of Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps I had one — well, two nagging thoughts:
1. Oliver Stone thinks I'm an idiot.
2. How did Shia LaBeouf get another job after Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen?
Poignancy and timeliness are worthy goals for any film, and neither are strangers to Stone's filmography. His latest though, seems a cheap and lazy attempt at both, a comment that is undeniably loud but adds nothing to the discussion of our economic miasma. Though entertaining at times, Money Never Sleeps never matches the pace or verve of its predecessor, tripping all the way over its clumsy didacticism.
Michael Douglas' reprisal of his role as Gordon Gekko, the conniving, slick-haired Wall Street villain that won him an Oscar in 1987, lends the film most of its potential along with the formidable Josh Brolin and Carey Mulligan. (If you're keeping track, that's three actors recognized by the Academy and one who starred in the Disney Channel's Even Stevens.) But as the plot meanders, solid acting is handicapped by clumsy, forced references to the original — e.g., Charlie Sheen's Bud Fox showing up long enough for some chit-chat with Gekko — and what might be some of the worst expository dialogue put on film this decade. This film could have stood alone. Instead, it hobbles forward on crutches wrapped in 13-year-old movie posters.
In the process, Stone seems to forget everything he once knew about the value of melodrama as a vehicle for social criticism, not the other way around. In Wall Street, Stone used Gordon Gekko to dramatize the evils of the stock market game. In Money Never Sleeps he literally gives Gekko a microphone and has him explain it to us — which is great if you appreciate the riveting conflict of a PowerPoint presentation. Stone's attachment to his agenda, and his compulsion to make sure we're getting it, repeatedly impedes an already bloated and unfocused story.
To complain that an Oliver Stone film feels heavy-handed is like walking out of a Pentecostal church shocked at the preacher's lack of subtlety. The man has made a career out of films with something to say about controversial topics, and on this side of the millennium, the something has become decidedly more overt. But if Stone has directed for years from a pulpit, viewers of Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps will find him posted on the street corner, bullhorn in hand. The problem is, I prefer to leave the theater with my mind buzzing, not my ears ringing.
Email arts@nashvillescene.com.
