Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

In Oliver Stone’s sequel to 1987’s Wall Street, Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) is coming out of federal prison. With the financial calamities of the present era either imminent or already in progress, still-fiery Gekko is very much inclined to redeem whatever he can of his past, especially if it gives him a means of capitalizing on whatever’s left of the future. The film, however, keeps edging Gekko toward the margins of its other stories—the burgeoning high-finance career of Jake Moore (Shia LaBoeuf) and his romance and courtship of Gekko’s estranged daughter Winnie (Carey Mulligan). That results in a rather bland swath of melodramatic romance that provides passable entertainment while also diminishing the story’s potential for genuine dramatic bite. LeBoeuf, nevertheless, is one of the film’s small coups, a nifty portrayal of a street-smart and not entirely heartless hustler, offered up perhaps as a more humane version of Gekko’s brash genius. Josh Brolin, Susan Sarandon, Frank Langella, Eli Wallach, and (in an unbilled cameo) Charlie Sheen all have pungent supporting roles that get somewhat lost in the swamp of the film’s dramatic meanderings. Feather River Cinemas, Paradise Cinema 7 and Tinseltown. Rated PG-13