Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps


By: Oliver Stone
Reviewed by: Felicity T., 16
Rating: It was alright...


Michael Douglass is back again in director Oliver Stone's sequel to the original Wall Street, creepy as I'm sure he ever was. I sum up this film in a few sentences:
Boy meets Wall Street. Boy falls in love with money. Boy meets girl. Boy falls in love with girl. Boy proposes to girl. Boy meets girl's estranged father. Boy and father are both financially vindictive. Girl realizes Boy is like father. Boy realizes father is the Devil. Drama and stock market crash ensue.

Now, while that may be simplistic to say the least, it sums up the Wall Street:$'s storyline. In this psychological drama, Douglass plays sociopathic Wall Street executive Gordon Gekko, who, after getting out of years of prison for all kinds of economic atrocities, sets out to pre-empt the coming 2008 financial crisis. Shia LaBeouf, a young Wall Street broker/banker guy named Jake Moore, lives with his soon-to-be fiancee, played by Carey Mulligan. I felt that Wall Street was very well-cast, but that it lacked in other areas.

Wall Street:$ is not an accessible film. By this, I mean that Wall Street was so full of stock market jargon that only an economist or a banker would know that it passes over the heads of a large demographic. The producers and marketing team were clever, though, because the preview hinted at none of this, only suggesting a powerful drama. Kudos to them for successful advertising.

Furthermore, the financial lingo was so thick that I had difficulty understanding what was going on in the film at various times. Granted, the context and visual aspects helped, but I doubt many teens would be willing to sit through a 2-hour-long movie that they can't understand. I would have enjoyed the excellent drama and psychology of the film much more if I had been able to follow the dialogue. I believe Wall Street's story was fabulous and gripping, and the development in Shia LaBeouf's character fascinating, but once again, the amount of jargon presented a significant barrier to me as an audience because it slowed the story's progression and helped me to lost interest more quickly than I would have otherwise.

Nevertheless, Wall Street:$ presented a handful of compelling ideas as food for thought. The film starts out with a monologue where Shia LaBeouf's character introduces the idea of bubbles. From what I gathered (and this may not be correct), bubbles, as a theme in the film, represent tough times through which people evolve and progress--a curious and pertinent idea, considering the recession our economy is in, and considering the stock market crash of 2008, around which Wall Street centers.

Another valid theme in Wall Street is the idea of the value of money vs. the value of time. Gekko at one point says (something to the effect) that he values not money, but time. This is a huge part of Moore's character development as he ultimately learns that living a contented, no-Wall-Street-strings-attached life as a family man is more meaningful than being married to the stock market. Ultimately, I think, this movie was not about money or time; it was about power. And this is where we see Douglass's character for what he is: a man greedy for power, a sociopath.

When I take the time to sit down and think through Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, I find that I actually immensely enjoyed the experience. But few teens I know would do that. Unless you plan on majoring in business or economics, I wouldn't recommend it. Your dad might like it, though.


Recommended to: Econ. brains, NOT teens