The Wizard of Lies (2017)

What a waste of my time!!!

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

This is an HBO movie that my wife and I watched at home on DVD from our public library.We remember it well, roughly 9 years ago when the big financial market decline was spooking all investors, out of the smoke came the Bernie Madoff fiasco. Who would have thought that a well-respected member of the New York financial community would have been running a simple Ponzi Scheme for upwards of 16 years? For upwards of $65 Billion? That's what this movie is about, who Madoff is, what he did, and what was his motivation?Robert De Niro is Bernie Madoff and Michelle Pfeiffer is his wife Ruth Madoff. They were in their 60s when all this went down. Madoff was a good salesmen, for years he convinced wealthy investors to put their money with his "fund" which was a phantom paper exercise. He showed them exceptional financial growth year after year but when the financial crisis hit and large investors started wanting their money it soon was all gone. Madoff didn't put up any resistance, he didn't try to divert blame, he admitted guilt when approached by authorities.Good movie of a sad case in investment history, makes you wonder what is going on right now.

Finally De Niro takes a break from hack comedies and mailed in roles for direct to red box garbage films! He delivers his best performance since "Jackie Browne" here as real life super villain Bernie Madoff. The movie itself is a long winded and sometimes trudging look at Madoff's life beginning when he comes clean as essentially a scam artist. De Niro transforms into the ultra rich and short tempered Bernie masterfully. I'm happy to see this after years of writing him off as a guy who'd lost his touch and just does it for the money. This is especially important to see with his upcoming reunion with Pesci and Scorsese in "The Irishman" looming.As a film I'd say this work gets the job done and serves its purpose well. Veteran workman director Barry Levinson who's three plus decade catalog includes all sorts of movies has made a pretty good movie here, possibly one of his best ever? It does not really wow you in anyway but it's also by no means bad. I especially enjoyed the scene in which Bernie attempts suicide with his wife and ends up hallucinating. The Wizard of Lies gets a 7 out of 10 which on my scale makes it a "good" movie, but it surely falls short of greatness with it's mostly straight forward and often dragging delivery.

The Wizard of Lies had a great cast and also great usage of dialogue. However, some of the moments have prolonged moments of business talking and family discussions that you have no background on. Although, some moments of those discussions impact the story and aren't boring. SPOILERS AHEAD: Some of the scenes that have the violent content are intense and very eerie. For example, the aftermath of the suicide is very creepy with the dark lighting and horrifying score. DeNiro did an amazing job in this film and really portrayed the feel the real Bernie felt when he betrayed his family and many other people. The brothers (I thought) did an excellent job. Bernie's wife really had that spoiled rich person feel which while at the time annoying, true. That's how people act when they are given that much power and money. That's all I have to say about The Wizard of Lies.

A maze of personalities, character conflicts, financial downfall and modern-day Shakespearian betrayal permeates the Bernard Madoff story, masterfully adapted from Diana B. Henriques' book for HBO by Sam Levinson, Sam Baum and John Burnham Schwartz. Robert De Niro portrays American stockbroker Madoff, an investment adviser and financier who, after coming to the realization in the fall of 2008 that keeping up the façade to preserve his empire was too much to bear, confessed he was the operator of a Ponzi scheme, defrauding his wealthy clients out of some $65 billion, the largest financial fraud in U.S. history. A byzantine collection of family members, angry investors, employees and unwitting accomplices join the puzzled FBI and the disgusted media in taking Madoff to task for his actions--actions for which Madoff has no excuse. "I never thought of what I was doing as stealing," he says, adding, "My biggest weakness is I always wanted to please people...that's one that can get you into trouble." Thoroughly engrossing depiction of recent history, full of ferociously frank, barbed dialogue and terrific performances from the ensemble cast. Barry Levinson helmed the smooth direction, aided by Ron Patane's efficient past-and-present editing.