The Wizard of Lies

HBO's "The Wizard of Lies," the feature-length movie about the stockbroker, investment adviser and financier Bernie Madoff and his history-making crimes, has a lot going for it. Not the least of these things are Academy Award-winning director Barry Levinson ("Rainman"), legendary actors Robert De Niro and Michelle Pfeiffer as its leads and a stellar supporting cast, including Alessandro Nivola and Hank Azaria. Unfortunately, this talented team fights an uphill battle when it comes to the script.

Based on the non-fiction book of the same name by Diana B. Henriques, the action chronicles the events that led to the arrest of Bernie Madoff, his admission to perpetrating the largest and most notorious Ponzi scheme in U.S. history and the devastating consequences of his actions.

The film resolves with Madoff (De Niro) asking himself if he is a sociopath. But the audience has already asked itself this question (and answered it) long before the final frames pass by. (In fact, due to the notoriety of the case and the infamy of its mastermind, the audience probably decided the answer to this question before they started watching.) The Madoff of this docudrama spends little time regretting his actions. There's no conspiracy plot or twists and turns in the action. And the narrative maintains that he acted alone. So we are left with an unsympathetic villain and his ineffectual victims.

Levinson works to make a story with little forward momentum compelling by adding cinematic moments. Using a subjective camera the director attempts to take us into his character's heads. Madoff has a drug-addled dream on a night he attempts to commit suicide by taking an overdose. And the camera shows us Mark Madoff, Bernie's emotionally tortured son, gradually becoming more and more unstable.

The supporting cast drives this movie forward. Azaria is marvelously smarmy as Frank DiPascali, a collaborator with Madoff and one of the few people who understands the extent of his misdeeds. Pfeiffer as Ruth Madoff is compelling as the most dynamic character in the script. And Nivola plays a heartbreaking Mark Madoff, a character who would have been a far more interesting protagonist for this film.

The Blu-ray contains a gripping featurette composed of actor interviews. In these, De Niro says that Madoff's story is "almost Shakespearian." But Shakespeare would never have a tragic hero who is unable to recognize his flaw. "The Wizard of Lies" does. Consequently, this television drama, like its main character, remains unenlightened.

"The Wizard of Lies"
Blu-ray
$19.95
hbo.com/