Wall Street: Irony never Sleeps

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps is a movie about irony. There is irony at every turn and in almost every scene of the film. Of course, the film was directed by Oliver Stone so there were also a lot of tears, gratuitous shots of the New York City skyline, long winded monologues and celebrity appearances. The good news is, after a two hour investment I was left with a building block of conversation and the memories of a man I met some seventeen years ago on HBO named Gordon Gekko.

The first Wall Street movie takes me back to a simpler time. In 1987 Wall Street wasn’t focused on credit default swaps, collateralized debt obligations and stock/warrant off-balance sheet research & development. Twenty three years ago Gordon Gekko used a mule-team of insiders and tipsters to manipulate the share prices of vulnerable companies in order to buy them at a discount and sell them off as unit parts. In 1987 Gordon Gekko also used the blossoming technologies of computers and cellular telephones. Too bad Blue Horseshoe loved Blue Star Airlines and Anacott Steel instead of Apple and Microsoft!

This Wall Street sequel is set in 2008 and is an editorial version of the circumstances that led to the market declines, credit crunches, housing bubble burst and bank failures of the past several years. I actually like the way the story was portrayed by Oliver Stone. He used some wind-bag analogies and overly dramatic monologues at both the front and back ends of the film, but the picture he painted in between was both thought provoking and entertaining.

I usually hate it when people make outlandish statements, but as cliché as it sounds, Michael Douglas was born to play Gordon Gekko. He has the style, the look and most importantly the sound of the character. The first third of the film saw Gordon re-building his life after a stay in prison and decrying the twenty first century version of “greed is good.” As I was watching this first third of the film, I couldn’t help but to think to myself that while co-actor Shia LaBeouf (as Jake Moore) seemed to acting his heart out, Michael Douglas just didn’t seem to be selling the part. As Douglas seemed to blandly read the lines he had memorized I started to wonder if his personal pain or family tragedy had spoiled his interest in his craft.

In the aforementioned first third of the film, the first ironic theme occurred when Gordon Gekko was shown smoking his trademark giant cigars. Still a symbol of the old-boys network and backroom dealings on “The Street,” Gekko smoked his stogies like they were an oval office intern. Of course, the irony of seeing Gekko inhale and exhale that poison lies in Michael Douglas’ current battle with throat cancer. While I understand the symbolism and importance of the cigar to the character I have to wonder if either Oliver Stone or Douglas should have used the edit room to remove the smoking reference. To those readers who might say that Douglas’ cancer was caused by “stress” or “alcohol” I urge you to reconsider the possibility that those were the exclusive causes of the disease.

The first third of Wall Street also introduced us to the daughter of Gordon Gekko, Winnie, played by British actress Carey Mulligan. I realize this may be a sensitive subject, and I will be the first to admit that I am no object of desire, but Mulligan seems like a rough combination of minimal beauty and average acting ability. There are certain rolls where the story calls for a specific look (Monster is a great example) but I just didn’t buy Winnie as the daughter of Gordon Gekko. Oliver Stone could have used the look of Winnie to represent her rebellion against her father, but I just could not picture a “Just One of the Guys” transformation of Carey Mulligan into an object of desire. On a side note, does anyone else remember how the media used to always portray Sinead O’Conner as a model quality beauty who shaved her head? That was another situation where I had a hard time picturing the possibilities.

At any rate, the only real value of the Winnie character was some Hilary Swank-ish crying. As you may recall from my review of P.S. I Love You, Hilary completed a marathon exiting of tears to the tune of around two hours and fifteen minutes. While Winnie did not break that record, there was still a lot of tears! Not only tears, but Winnie had the quivering lip cry. I have no idea what Mulligan was thinking about to send out both nickel size tears and the lip quiver but I think the last line of the film should have been:

“No animals were injured during filming, however Bambi was slaughtered over and over in the mind of Carey Mulligan. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.”

The second-third of the Wall Street film saw the meat of the plot unfold and the introduction of Bretton James, played by Josh Brolin. Brolin, famous for his first acting roll in Goonies and for beating his wife (allegedly), has become quite the go-to actor in the past several years. Oliver Stone dropped in ironic theme number two with the casting of Brolin as financial heavyweight (and original Gekko whistle blower) & Wall Street power broker James. The irony, of course, lies in the face of Brolin as a co-conspirator in the financial meltdown and government bailout. The same face used to portray that meltdown is also cinematically tied to George W. Bush, whom Brolin portrayed in 2008’s W.

The third ironic theme came from the only question I wanted answered from the first Wall Street film. When I originally saw the trailer for this new Wall Street I was confused by the introduction of a daughter for Gordon Gekko. Gekko was portrayed as having a son in the first installment but there was never a daughter. I was very curious as to how Oliver Stone was going to explain this one and to be honest I was fearful of a Mummy style switcheroo where Rachel Weisz becomes Maria Bello without any further explanation. Stone not only handled the answer in a smart way, he also brought the real life of Michael Douglas back to the forefront by having Gekko’s son die of drug use despite his best efforts for help. I can only imagine the pain and embarrassment that Douglas has felt with the drug problems of his son that ultimately landed him in prison.

The final third of Wall Street brought the spine tingling moment I had been secretly hoping for but not expecting. Even if for just a few screen moments, Douglas brought out Gordon Gekko in all of his scheming and conniving glory. The moment Gekko was back, the whole story tied itself together along with the brilliant performance of Douglas. While I was feeling sorry for him as he seemed to be robotically and uninspiring reading his lines, he was simply acting as a character who himself was acting.

While the final couple of minutes and ultimate conclusion of the film did not live up to the story that had been painted, I am going to refrain from criticizing it. As with most Hollywood films, there is a need to finish things up with a big red bow and happy ending. Oliver Stone went out of his way in the last 45 seconds of the film to make sure that everyone in the film received some sort of validation, justice or comfort. The true story that Wall Street mirrors had no real winners, so why not leave us all with something to look forward to. It was as if Stone was reminding all of us that it is "Morning in America."

So, to wrap this one up, let me just say that this Blue Horseshoe loves Magellan Midstream Partners LP. It’s a solid, dividend paying stock that you should consider.

Warren