User reviews

Richard Dreyfuss claims first portrayal of this monster, but he made Bernard out to be somewhat approachable, as he talked through the fourth wall and joked about the art of selling a scam. He was good but too likable. DeNiro is one of our great acting treasures and his take is nothing nice at all. In fact, it is impossible to like this man. He is evil here, and while one can have some sympathy for Ruth and her sons, the entire tragedy, almost out of Shakespeare, is well done. It bounces around a bit to the past and present, but easy to follow and under the direction of Barry Levinson, moves smartly. But don't watch this if you want a positive evening - hard film indeed. Shot of whiskey portrayal of a monster.

I wanted more, more of how Bernie Madoff became the man we meet in this film. When we meet him he is already rotten. He is mere months away from his arrest.

There is in Robert DeNiro's portrayal little or nothing to like or empathize with. Or care about. What we have is a true sociopath who is found out early in the film, which forces us to see nothing but the devastation left in his wake.

This is my way of saying there is no story arc. There are no surprises. What flashbacks there are show Madoff in his personal life but always at his worst.

Michelle Pheiffer as Madoff's wife has a small rand unconvincing role. And like her husband, I couldn't care less about her fate. As for the Madoff sons, to some degree this is more their story than anyone else's. And to the degree that I learned quite a bit about them, the film deserves credit.

But that is not enough to warrant its viewing.

... is the lesson I took away from the Bernie Madoff story, even before I saw this film. Think about this - Bernie Madoff is serving 150 years, and his earliest release date is 2039. Charles Manson has been getting regular parole hearings since the 1990s. Who is more dangerous? A better question is who is more dangerous to the plutocracy.

The whole story is basically done in flashback after Madoff is incarcerated and is being interviewed by a reporter. This film takes the approach of assuming that the wife and sons knew nothing until Bernie told them right before he was arrested. If there is anything the Bernie Madoff story would teach you, it is "Don't steal from the very rich". The movie emphasized all of the little people who lost everything to the Ponzi scheme, but there were enough people with enough money left over - as in hundreds of millions - that they could hire attorneys and even claw back money from people who withdrew all of their money before Bernie went bust, even though they knew nothing of the scheme. Compare that to what happened to the banksters who swindled the entire nation - which was absolutely nothing, or Enron, where the Bush administration had to practically be shamed into prosecuting the executives who swindled investors. To date about 70% of the money Bernie Madoff swindled has been recovered, with "small" investors - those that invested less than a million - being made completely whole.

Anyways, back to "The Wizard", which doesn't mention any of this. DeNiro was terrific as a guy who decided to keep his swindling secret to himself - and one smarmy associate played by Hank Azaria. Michelle Pfeiffer as Ruth Madoff almost stole the show from DeNiro as a woman who can't deal with being ostracized and hated for something she had nothing to do with. She wonders aloud how she got to be almost 70 and never learned to do anything for herself. De Niro's Madoff is shown as being able to compartmentalize how he is stealing from investors, many of whom are family and friends, encouraging those at the end to put in huge amounts of money to keep the scheme afloat in the wake of the 2008 crash, which is ultimately what did him in, and somehow sees taking what is left of his ill gotten gains and distributing it to his family and "a few loyal employees" before he turns himself in as "noblesse oblige" not just more theft, which it was.

Hints to Madoff's personality are in the little scenes. He is very stoic about being the world's biggest and most brazen thief caught to date, but he does get animated about a dirty dish and the way lobster is served at a society dinner he is hosting.

There is one particularly odd scene for Turner Classic Movie fans. At one point, while Bernie is under house arrest, Bernie and his wife decide to commit suicide in "a nice way" using Ambien and a bunch of other pharmaceuticals they have around the house. It doesn't work - they wake up the next morning. But as they lay in bed expecting to die, who pops up on the TV screen they are watching but the recently deceased Robert Osborne and TCM with him introducing Judy Garland singing "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas". What an odd touch. I didn't even think anybody at HBO even knew that TCM existed.

The Wizard of Lies chronicles the infamous Wall Street meltdown that was Madoff's Billion Dollar Ponzi scheme in Barry Levinson's woefully flawed but still engaging film. Starring Robert De Niro and Michelle Pffeifer, The Wizard of Lies features a strong cast of seasoned actors that give their best on screen. De Niro particularly is very strong here and gives his best performance in close to a decade. However, the film suffers from a broken and jumbled script that leaves for a somewhat confusing watch.

The film begins with an interview between Madoff and the subsequent author of his unofficial biography. He begins telling the story at the end of the meltdown on the eve of his arrest and starts from there. From here on out, we're told the story in chunks and pieces, from one perspective to another and totally abandons all formality regarding coherent storytelling. Instead, Levinson creates a deeply personal character study that paints Madoff as a sociopath and a white collar criminal mastermind who would rather blame the victim than himself. While it is engrossing to see De Niro as Madoff, it is barely enough to sustain its bloated runtime.

The film is engrossing to watch. There's no denying it but as the minutes ticked by, it all started to feel redundant. It was more so just dragging the entire Madoff family through hell for the remaining hour of the film and it becomes exhausting after awhile. In a way it was very much a Greek tragedy of epic proportions that just didn't seem to end and by the time it decided it wanted to, you were already checked out 10 minutes prior. Despite this, the ending is satisfying for those wanting to see karma at its best or a tragedy at its worst, whatever way you want to look at it.

Overall, The Wizard of Lies is a missed opportunity more so than not. While it is great to see De Niro and Pfeiffer in top forms, it would have been nice to get a more coherent script from a story that literally writes itself. While anyone expecting a film in the vein of The Big Short will be let down by this, The Wizard of Lies benefits from being a deep character study that shines a (small) light of one of the most tragic mysteries of the 2008 financial crisis.

An interesting attempt to weave a story line on the Madoff ponzi scheme but one that in the end is disjoint, incomplete, and largely unsatisfying. It certainly falls far short of other great financial movies – the Big Short, Margin Call, and Smartest Guys in the Room, to name a few. Worth watching but not likely a movie to savor, add closure, provide moral assurance, or make you feel anything. Too many moving pieces that lack grounding – the timeline has no center and the flashbacks and jumps forward are too disjoint, too many supporting characters are painted as morally ambiguous, and the many defrauded clients are nameless and faceless.

As for the some of the details, it's hard to get around Michelle Pfeiffer accent. It may be spot-on but the voice is just annoying. Add in Robert De Niro's unbalanced intonations and a discordant soundtrack and sound-editing and it is not a movie that will sit well with your ears.

It should have been done as a 3-4 part mini-series. They would have had a lot more time to not only relay the full time line and details of the case but also go into the many interesting sub-stories and tragedies. For example, the efforts of Harry Markopolos to unmask the fraud is addressed only by showing Bernie and Ruth watching 30 seconds of testimony on the TV in their condo. The questions of the hundreds of millions potentially transferred to London accounts for the benefit of Madoff relatives is not explored. The ineptitude of the SEC, FINRA and other agencies is also given short-shrift. Did you know that Shana Madoff, the chief compliance officer and niece of Bernie Madoff, married an Assistant Director of the Office of Compliance Investigations and Examinations at the SEC. They met in 2003 when he was performing an examination as to whether Madoff was running a Ponzi scheme. The SEC Director of Compliance Investigations and Examinations attended their wedding in 2007.

As it is, the movie dips its toe into the $64.8B (yes $64.8 billion) fraud case and provides some insights as to who in the inner circle may or may not have been culpable– all in the course largely telling a family drama. Interesting and entertaining, yes. A good film, meh. Disappointing for what it could have been, most definitely.

"In a world full of lies, the most dangerous ones are those we tell ourselves." - Diana Henriques

On March 12, 2009, Bernard Madoff pleaded guilty to 11 federal felonies and admitted to turning his wealth management business into a massive Ponzi scheme.

But to describe STUPID, would be the Security Exchange Commission. Madoff said he could have been caught in 2003, but the bumbling Inspector Clouseau's never asked the right questions.

"I was astonished" says Madoff. "They never even looked at my stock records. If investigators had checked with The Depository Trust Company, it would've been easy for them to see. If you're looking at a Ponzi scheme, it's the first thing you do."

Yes, Bernard Madoff is and will always be a dishonest thieving criminal (he's currently serving a life sentence at The FCC Butner in North Carolina). However, when the sh-- hit the fan in 2008 (largely due to the BUSH Administration), the banks and Insurance Companies were actually rewarded with a 700 billion dollar bail out (which was eventually "paid" back at virtually ZERO percent interest)

The moral of the story; When there is GREED, there's always more than just 1 BAD GUY.

The story of master stock manipulator Bernie Madoff, Robert De Niro, and how he swindled thousands of those who invested their money into his hedge fund shows just how those in government in charge of protecting people's money in the stock market were asleep on the job and let him get away with it more then how smart Bernie was in, until he got caught, pulling it all off. As for Bernie he made no attempt to excuse himself in what he did but took full responsibility for his actions. Which in fact lead to him now inmate as #61727054 ending up with a 150 year sentence behind bars and both his sons Mark & Andrew, Alessandro Nivola & Nathan Darrow, dead-Mark by suicide and Andrew from cancer- within the next ten years after he was arrested. It was in fact Bernie's long suffering wife Ruth, Michelle Pfeiffer, who suffered the most from her husband's crimes losing both her sons her high life style favorite hairdresser and friends, whom Bernie had stiffed out of their life savings, as well as husband, whom she hasn't talked to in years, and is now living quietly with her sister in Florida with only her social secrecy check , between $800.00 to $1,200.00 a month, to survive and pay her bills with.

It was the stock market crash of September 15, 2008 that brought an end to Bernie Madoff's secret Ponzi Scheme that resulted in the staggering 64.5 billion dollar loss that was invested in it to go missing with Bernie left holding the bag. With him having nothing to cover his thousands of investors, including holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel and L.A Dodgers pitching star Sandy Koufax, losses Bernie's career as a stock market wizard came to a crashing end together with his two to three billion dollars in savings. We see Bernie going through a number weird hallucinations-asleep as well as awake-in him being haunted by those whom he ripped off in his Ponzi racket that destroyed their lives. In everything that Bernie was accused of doing in the movie the one that ticked him off and he really resented was being compared-by a NY Times writer- to serial murderer Ted Bundy who killed as many as 50 to 100 women saying that of all the things he did in his life he never killed anyone! Yet his actions caused over a dozen of his victims to end up killing themselves!

It's hard to work up any sympathy for Bernie since all that happened to him and his family members whom he more then anyone else ended up screwing was of his own doing. Not that Bernie also had a good side to him in giving thousands if not millions to charitable causes but that was only a fraction of the money that he stiffed out of his clueless, in not knowing what his motives were, investors. Now left alone in his eight by ten cell in a North Carolina minimum security prison Bernie is teaching fellow inmates economics as well as how to avoid smooth talking shysters and snake oil salesmen like himself from doing business with them and their savings.

The story of Bernie Madoff (played by Robert De Niro), the man responsible for the largest Ponzi scheme in history, defrauding investors out of approximately $65 bn.

Heaps of potential - I was expecting something along the lines of Enron - The Smartest Guys In the Room, but dramatized. However, this doesn't come close to living up to it.

This movie could have been a great exposition on what drives people to commit crimes of such a magnitude, especially a person who was once the paragon of ethics and prudence and who was revered in his industry. Just the transition from law-abiding citizen to master criminal would have been fascinating to watch, not to mention how he put his criminal plans into operation.

But, no, nothing like that. No transition and very little on the criminal operation. The focus is almost entirely on Madoff and his family during the trial and his incarceration. While the wife and children deserve our empathy, by focusing on the private life of Bernie Madoff he is made out to be more of a victim than a villain, which is a preposterous thought.

Thus there is very little engagement, as the central character is certainly not worth supporting. This generally makes for a fairly flat experience.

There are some interesting intrigues and sub-plots and these are tellingly felt in the last few scenes, as Madoff's crimes impact his family.

Overall: watchable, but could have been so much better.

After reading a couple of negative reviews about this movie, I get the impression that the people who found it insufficient or boring completely lost the point. Levinson didn't try to pull a "Fincher" with this one. In other words, "Wizard of Lies" is not a documentary, touching on each and every aspect of this infamous case in every detail. This is more of a psychogram (i.e. character portrayal) of the members of the Madoff family. With that in mind, the movie touches wonderfully on the dynamics of an ultimately patriarchal family; the "castration" of the sons, the absolute dependence of every member of the family on the father, and on what happens when this father goes down in a big, BIG way. If you are interested in learning about the greatest financial fraud in the history of the USA (some say of all time), then visit the Wikipedia page or watch a documentary. This movie will not cover your needs. If you want to watch a beautifully directed, acted and edited psychological drama, then "The Wizard of Lies" is right up your alley.

Bernie Madoff (Robert De Niro) is being interview by writer Diana Henriques whose book on which this movie is based. The respected legend of Wall Street is in prison for the biggest Ponzi scheme in history. The other protagonists are his wife Ruth (Michelle Pfeiffer) and their two sons, Andrew and Mark.

This is a HBO film from legendary director Barry Levinson. It doesn't really expand on the plot or the scam. It's more of a character piece for the family. I really like the father son relationships. It would be great to make this a Mark Madoff movie. De Niro is solid as an unrepentant Bernie. Pfeiffer is doing a version of Ruth which gets a little bothersome. She's whiny and plays herself as a victim but not in a fun way. The movie needs some fun and she would be good for that. In the end, the acting is solid. There is some sympathetic takes on the Madoff sons. There are other better takes on the Madoff scandal but this one is pretty good.

I was somewhat surprised by this biopic, since I'm well-acquainted with the modern Ponzi scheme story and the $65 Billion ripoff committed at the private investment firm. But even for those familiar with the general story, the documentary film provides a fascinating portrait of the Madoff family and the key characters. Overall it reminds me of an epic Greek tragedy.

The principal crime committed by Bernie Madoff is clearcut. Officially, Madoff run a phenomenal hedge fund, but in reality it was just one big hoax and pyramid investment scheme. All ROIs were fictitious and existing investors were paid by the money provided by subsequent investors. Aside from defrauding rich individuals of European royalty, Madoff took advantage of the fact that he as a jewish investor had excellent contacts to other wealthy American jews, which allowed him to swindle countless of the latter of all their retirement savings. All in all, in the end it led to countless tragedies and suicides on both continents.

The financial thriller behind it has been well-told by previous accounts, particularly 'No One Would Listen' by Harry Markopolos (i.e. the financial analyst struggled to expose the fraud for many years). It's also true that the ramifications would have been much more limited if the SEC would have done their job properly.

However, what this biopic does is following Bernie Madoff and the effects of the exposure on his own family, i.e. particularly his wife Ruth and his two adult sons. It seems as his family was completely unaware of the fraud and the movie does a good job in explaining how his sons never got the information from their dominating father. Later, when it all blew up the fraud also wreaked havoc on the lives of his wife and sons.

In the end, it was all for nothing. The family members would lived longer and happier lives without massive fraud committed by the Bernard. While the portrait of him is by no means completely unsympathetic, he remains seemingly oblivious even to this day to the devastation he caused in so many lives, including to those nearest to him.

The main roles played by Robert de Niro and Michelle Pfeiffer are brilliant, but also the less-known actors playing his two sons.

The Wizard of Lies is an excellent Bio film and depiction of real life events. Never is the viewer lost in financial jargon as the film goes to great lengths to accurately explain the crimes Bernie Madoff committed on the American Public at large and his investors. My only problem besides the long run time of this film is that it has no choice but to paint Madoff as a sympathetic character which is much more than he deserves. A victim of his own greed the fact that he was able to defraud and scheme on his own is amazing and terrifying at the same time. It makes the viewer question our countries financial structure and institutions. If one man can alone do so much damage to an already struggling stagnant economy how could this happen? Even worst still how many like him go unrecognized? Excellent acting and dramatic conflict is presented in the wizard of lies. A film that is as educational as it is entertaining.

I was really looking forward to this. I thought this was going to be great. Robert DeNiro, HBO, Michelle Pfeffier, a very interesting story about one of the most successful conmen in our country, how could this go wrong? Unfortunately, it does from the beginning. The problem with this movie is that the writing puts it down a path that is uninteresting. We don't learn much about Madolff, his family or why he got to where he is today. Instead, it's a series of interviews Madolff has with a NY Times writer while in prison. The story is told in a mix of flash forwards and flashbacks, never developing much of a rhythm. I started getting bored with the slow dialogue and unfolding of scenes that really didn't tell me much at all. Hank Azaria plays a great villain, but why do we need to hear 10 minutes of a disgusting joke to get that point? There's just no build up or conclusion. What we get is a man who knows what he did was wrong and keeping it from his unlikable family. I had no sympathy. The Madolff scandal is a very interesting story, it's too bad it wasn't told in an interesting, thought provoking way.

This film tells the story of the biggest scandal on Wall Street, where a multi-billionaire swindles billions out of his customers in a giant Ponzi scheme.

What makes "The Wizard of Lies" interesting and captivating is that it does not get into the technical stuff of Wall Street. It focuses on the human side of the characters, namely their thoughts, their hopes and their dreams. The scene when Mr Madoff tells Mark that he is not up to scratch for the business is really heart breaking. Mark's brief and simple responses tell so much, and the viewers are left to fill in the blanks regarding the disappointment and devastation that Mark must have felt. Mrs Madoff's misfortune of being blamed for something she had no involvement in is very sad as well. The whole film makes me feel very sorry for the Madoff family. "The Wizard of Lies" has good story telling, and it has a good story to tell.

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.

Great acting but the story itself feels pointless. Bernie was still blaming everyone else except himself in his interviews with Diana Henriques. I'm not sure what the point of this story is, honestly.

People in tune with what happened will be sadden that not much new material was revealed. It really seemed like a vehicle to let people rant about someone we already know has been punished. Furthermore, the central secondary character, a female reporter character he apparently confessed to in between bouts where he was being chastised by her much have been a construct or an 'amalgamous' creation.

It seemed over full with suppositions from people that had no idea about what was really going on and who they felt really needed to be punished as well as Bernie.

The part that I really wanted to see covered in more depth, the failure of the system to keep an eye on these fund managers, received the same coverage as a lawsuit against eleven thousand dollars a four year old girl would get when she would be all grown up (Bernie's Grand daughter).

I bet HBO,(FOX), didn't want to stir up anything with the lack of financial regulation in the US. Also, that the director and the writers weren't free to make the film they wanted.

Which goes to say, we cannot expect any real cutting edge journalism documentaries with an HBO label on it that seriously look at problems with the American Government or interests of the G.O.P.

A really good docudrama could have and should have been made with this cast.

The story reveals itself as vignettes that become more and more tight toward the end. How psychopathy has a huge blind spot.

A quick guide in how to lose $65 billion and get rich in the process. Downside is it will cost you everything, but what's money worth anyway? Such a fascinating true story on such a terrible person. A real sociopath he was. They always say they do it for their family but it really comes down to their own ego. Poor Ruth/ Michelle Pfeiffer.

Some reviews argue that it should have been a mini series but I argue the opposite, this is perfection! To add would only dilute it. Yes, your left pleading for more but that's not because it's left unsatisfactory. No, it's because during the entire film, you're absolutely riveted and captivated! People, this is Barry Levinsons film, headed by De Niro and Michelle Pheifer! Levinson is a genius at his craft as are the formers. This film is bleak and at times depressing but I promise you never for a second not so engaged in it! De Niro becomes Madoff physically even the way he walks. The cast is incredible. Finally De Niro immersed himself into a character that can portray his craft. This is one vehicle, the cast-directing-editing, that sums up to make a masterpiece! This is by far the most captivating, engaging, riveting movie I've seen this year by far! Do yourself a favor and watch this immediately!

The Wizard of Lies is a great television movie with a very well developed plot and a stellar cast. It's a very bleak drama that can be difficult to watch at times, there is really no light at the end of the tunnel here. The actions of Bernie Madoff were inhuman and completely inexcusable, and this film does not try to sugarcoat that in any way. I never read too much in to it and was pleased with how in depth and easy to follow this all was, you do not need to know anything about the events prior to watching this movie.

There really is no character to route for here, which, while it is understandable, is still one of the only majors issues I had. Madoff is, of course, the main character, who we can not possibly sympathise with, and even his wife Ruth and other close friends and relatives are not depicted with any noble traits. While it did not take me out of the movie, it just made me somewhat discomforted watching two hours of several characters I was not routing for.

The cast is tremendous, Robert De Niro delivers one of his greatest performances in years, portraying outstanding depth and characterisation to Madoff. While it could not possibly have been an easy role to take on, he made it look simple. Michelle Pfeiffer is also excellent as Ruth Madoff, a very layered performance, her screen presence in this part was undeniable and whenever she left, I just wanted to see more of her.

It is a discomforting drama that I enjoyed every moment of. An engaging plot and perfect casting, I would recommend The Wizard of Lies to anyone looking for a good drama.

Chronicles the life of Bernie Madoff following the announcement of his Ponzi scheme that put his clients in billions of dollars in dept.

Best Performance: Robert De Niro

We have a quirky legal system. If you kill someone, you might get 12 years, but if you defraud a large group of people, but much more importantly, make the government look foolish, you might get 150 years: Because the government cannot be made to look foolish. In Barry Levinson's film, it is quite clear that our Bernie is a sociopath.

There are several telling scenes: His lack of a reaction to 9/11, as he keeps working as the towers fall; his acceptance of his Sister-in-Law's remaining savings as he knows his fund is going down the tubes; his comment to the journalist that his investors shared in the blame. There are some compelling scenes: Madoff, played by Robert DeNiro, and his wife, played by Michelle Pfeiffer, decide to commit suicide-unsuccessfully- while Judy Garland is shown singing 'Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas from 'Meet Me In St. Louis', and in the haze brought about by the sleeping pills, Madoff is taken on an Ebenezer Scrooge accounting of his life and deeds; Madoff, at a Thanksgiving party at their Palm Beach estate, is frantically trying to juggle phone calls as he tries to lure new investors, all to the frenetic beat of the drum by the band at the party; one of his sons, played by Alessandro Nivola, is suffering a total meltdown, prior to committing suicide, and is frantically calling his brother, who has stopped taking his calls, and leaving desperate and increasingly unhinged messages.

DeNiro does some of his best latterly work herein, without his usual array of ticks, mannerisms and kabuki faces. It is an understated performance that is very powerful. Pfeiffer is terrific as the clueless wife with the thick Long Island accent, who nonetheless manages to find an inner strength and some purpose to her life. Madoff's weak sons are ably and sympathetically portrayed by Nivola and Nathan Darrow. Once again, with Levinson, we see a totally unwarranted respect for a ravenous pack of media, including the despicable Joy Behar in a cameo.

The warm, sympathetic family drama about Bernie, Ruth and their sons that nobody asked for! It's 42 minutes until the victims of Madoff's fraud-- many of whom lost their life savings/retirements -- are mentioned. And then the movie snaps right back into heart-tugging mode for these repellent grifters. Robert DeNiro amd Michelle Pfeiffer are the only good things here. But that's like tossing 2 Mentos on cowdung and hoping for fresh air.