Memorable, crazy movie

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday MorningAfter the worldwide financial crash of 2008, as that notorious year drew to a close, another massive monetary scandal hit the headlines, in the shape of Bernie Madoff (Robert De Niro), who created a Ponzi scheme that defrauded an endless stream of investors. Speaking on the record to a journalist from prison, he recounts how it all got started, when it all went wrong and the massive impact it had on his wife Ruth (Michelle Pfeiffer) and sons Andrew (Nathan Darrow) and Mark (Alessandro Nivola), who both passed away during his incarceration.Whilst the big screens of the cinemas are clogged up with superhero franchises, and various other loud, mindless mayhem simply designed to suck cash from a loyal fan base, it's falling on online streaming services such as Netflix, or television channels like HBO to bring us weightier, more dynamic and ambitious drama, drawing in the big names along with it. Such has been the case with director Barry Levinson's portrait of Bernie Madoff, the Wall Street fat cat and living embodiment of the 'greed is good' mantra that went so grossly off course.Whilst every other form of diversity is being celebrated and pumped for maximum effect, Hollywood seems to forget that not so long ago, ageism was the number one accusation coming its way, with dozens of older stars pushed to the side lines in favour of younger talent. And so it's to his credit with this that Levinson is able to highlight was this was such a folly, as it seems to be the age and experience of the seasoned, veteran cast that make it work so well. Being the same age as lead star De Niro, the pair seem to have formulated some fine actor/director dynamic that makes it all flow smoothly. It's interesting to think how this might have worked out if it had been another De Niro collaboration with Martin Scorsese, as Madoff appears to be on familiar territory with the type of characters they've explored before, a gruff mobster type using coarse language and taking no sh!t.De Niro never loses his ability to carry a film, and here he perfectly fits the skin of this emotionally detached manipulator, who possesses the ability to destroy hundreds of lives with the coldness of a mass murderer. At the end, as he struggles to comprehend his comparison to serial killer Ted Bundy, does the realization of his persona seem to remotely dawn on him. ****

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.

If you want to know more about the biggest fraud that ever happened in the USA then The Wizard Of Lies is the movie to watch. The life of Bernie Madoff is not really a thing I'm interested in but I guess for other people it might be interesting. The movie and the acting is not bad. Certainly not the acting with a great cast. Robert de Niro can play anything. But if you're like me and you could not care less about superrich people losing money by trying to get even more money then it might be a bit boring. There is a law for the rich and there is a law for the poor, this movie prooves it again. The Wizard Of Lies is to me just good to watch once, except if you like that kind of stories than you will like it more then I did.

10/23/17. A decent TV movie about the Madoff debacle. This is the side that the public did not know that much about - what happened to the family. De Niro does a fine job as Madoff, a man swallowed by Greed, and Pfeiffer as his long suffering wife, who lost it all as well. Perhaps, a good lesson from all this is - Greed is never good, and that the piper will always get paid in the end.