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.
Review of The Wizard of Lies
