Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

Life Lessons On Happiness, Helpfulness, and Hedonism
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, PG-13, ***1/2, Michael Douglas, Shia LaBeouf,Josh Brolin,Carey Mulligan, Frank Langella, Eli Wallach, Susan Sarandon. 20th Century Fox film, Director Oliver Stone. Length 130 minutes.

The film opens with a very brief description of what is known as the “Cambrian Explosion.” It is said to have happened 600 million years ago. According to some it started a more rapid evolution process. This is a metaphoric statement about our lives and how we change.
The camera pans the city of New York with its tall buildings where the financial world buys, trades, and sometimes leads us to a crisis.
With greed verses restraint and using our intelligence and resources to make the world a better place, the film begins its charted course toward some sort of explanation of the economic world.
Most everyone remembers Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) in the original “Wall Street.” As Tony Montana (Al Pacino) in the film “Scarface” said about one of the characters in “Scarface,” “How could I forget him.”
Gekko was the inside trader and all around bad guy in the first “Wall Street.” This time the audience views him as he is leaving prison with a rough draft of a book he wrote, his giant mobile phone, and an empty gold money clip.
Jake Moore (Shia LaBeouf) is a young Wall Street trader in love with Gordon Gekko’s daughter Winnie (Carey Mulligan). Jake is working on getting funding for an alternative fuel that is environmentally safe. He is a young semi-liberal and aggressive Wall Street trader trying to help make the world a better place.
Winnie is not speaking to her father and does not want anything to do with him. The personal reasons are revealed as the film progresses.
Jake hears Gekko speak to some college kids about the book he has written entitled Is Greed Good. The audience observes a fine line between making money and greed itself. This is demonstrated by what we do and what we would like to do with our lives. The answer is simple - do what makes one happy.
Jake’s Investment firm is in trouble. Louis Zabel (Frank Langella) leads the company with old style customs. Bretton James (Josh Brolin), who works for another Investment firm, helps to bring Zabel’s firm to its knees.
The performances by everyone are convincing. I think this is Shia LaBeouf best performance. He totally immersed himself in his character. Frank Langella delivers a brief performance that is realistic as a troubled man ending his career on a bad note. Josh Brolin does another great job with his portrayal of a sleazy business man. Of course, Michael Douglas raises the bar as his character has changed and yet remained the same in many ways. Let’s not forget Carrie Mulligan who wraps herself around a character totally different from her father, and Oliver Stone, the director, who pieces together another picture of “Wall Street.”
The film contains a great deal of financial terminology at the very beginning in order to set up the overall story of what is happening in the economic world. The wheeling and dealing in the board rooms that affects the lives of all Americans shows the power of some corporations, and their influence over hard workers everywhere.
We are shown the greed that is inside all of us. From borrowing too much money, to buying items that we do not need, abandoning our principles, and finally, demonstrating that all of us have a hunger for materialism.
Hopefully, the subtle messages will help decrease the greed in our lives, increase our desire to seek happiness, and lend a hand to others in order to make our planet a better place in which to live.