In Oliver Stone’s Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, Gordon Gekko becomes the conscience of Wall Street.  Michael Douglas reprises his role as the financial district’s greedy king.

Shia LaBeouf plays Jake Moore, the whip-smart trader who’s about to marry Gekko’s daughter.

A daughter lost

Douglas’ fiery Gekko has acquired some wisdom during his eight years in prison.  His one major regret: the chasm between him and his daughter Winnie (understated shooting star Carey Mulligan), who blames him for her brother’s death by overdose and almost everything else.

Winnie is the CEO of a small, progressive internet page that leaks big news stories.  The inheritance she keeps mum about, $100 million in a Swiss bank account, becomes key later on in this story.

As Gekko hawks his book Is Greed Good?, he speaks to an eager audience at Fordham University. The gem of this film’s excellent dialogue is Gekko’s speech, part of which follows:

Greed becomes legal

“I once said, ‘Greed is good.’ Now it seems it’s legal. It’s greed that makes the country cut the interest rates to one percent after 9/11 so we could all go shopping again. And we got all these fancy names for trillions of dollars of credit. . . . I’ll tell you what they are. They’re WMDs, weapons of mass destruction.”

“When I was away it seemed like greed got greedier, with a little bit of envy mixed in.  . . . Mr. Banker, he starts leveraging his interests up to 40, 50 to one. With your money, not his. Because he could. You’re supposed to be borrowing, not them.  And the beauty of the deal, no one is responsible.  Because everyone’s drinking the same Kool-aid.”

“Last year ladies and gentlemen, 40 percent of all American corporate profits came from financial services. Not production, not anything remotely to do with the needs of the American public. The truth is, we’re all part of it now. . . . We take a buck, we shoot it full of steroids, and we call it ‘leverage.’ I call it ‘steroid banking.’”

Speculation as evil

“It’s clear as a bell to those that pay attention. The mother of all evil is speculation. Leveraged debt. Bottom line. It’s borrowing to the hilt. And I hate to tell you this, but it’s a bankrupt business model. It won’t work. It’s systemic, malignant, and it’s global. Like cancer. It’s a disease, and we got to fight back.”

Gekko wraps up his dramatic insights (one of Douglas’ finest deliveries, reminiscent of his American President soliloquy) with a plug for his book. “Prices and profits work,” he shouts to the applauding group of young traders and business students.

Young upstart arrives

Soon Gekko meets Moore, an idealist specializing in clean energy technology. (“That’s smart. That’s the next bubble,” he quips.)  The problem is that Moore faces major hurdles lining up financing for a small, promising fusion start-up company.

Gekko gives ten minutes to his future son-in-law, dispensing more advice: “Money’s a bitch. She lies there in bed at night with you, looking at you, one eye open. Money’s a bitch that never sleeps.”

Moore has been shaken by the suicide of his Wall Street mentor Lou (Frank Langella) and fears his own impending layoff.

Insider gossip

As the 2008 financial meltdown proceeds, he goes to work for the street’s newest kingpin, Bretton James (Josh Brolin). Over time Gekko shares insider gossip about James and his cronies:

“They knew this home loan fantasy was going to collapse the market. And when they did they got the Fed to bail out their bad insurance swaps 100 cents on the dollar. The system is insolvent.”

“No one knows what to do next except repeat the same insanity until the next bubble blows. Talk about an evil empire, this puts me to shame.  And I’m small time compared to these crooks.”

Victimless crime?

Gekko preaches about moral hazard when “someone takes your money and is not responsible for it.” He views his own past transgressions as a victimless crime.

The new father figure and young Moore make a trade. Gekko gives Moore a childhood photo of his daughter, and Moore promises to give him Winnie’s current photo and set up a dinner reunion with the conflicted beauty.

LaBeouf, Brolin stunning

With great acting and plot twists, the film includes a blunt confrontation between Moore and Gekko. LaBeouf gives a particularly stunning performance.

Adding depth are Brolin in his super-villainous role, and Susan Sarandon as Jake’s needy mother.

Stone succeeds with a sweeping, moral drama that comes close to capturing the complexities of the ongoing financial mess sweeping America and the world. Rodrigo Prieto beautifully captures Manhattan in full, glittering splendor as Stone delivers a wry wink to greed and honor.

Thrill of the game

Gekko’s thrill has never been about the money. “It’s about the game,” he says, “the game between people.” (4 out of 5 stars)

If you like Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, you might enjoy: Solitary Man; Margin Call.

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps  2010  /  PG-13  /  2 hours, 18 min

Cast Overview:  Michael Douglas, Shia LaBeouf, Josh Brolin, Carey Mulligan, Eli Wallach, Susan Sarandon, Frank Langella, Austin Pendleton, John Bedford Lloyd

Director:  Oliver Stone

Genres:  Drama