I was so pleased to hear that the A List actor Richard Dreyfuss (American Graffiti, Jaws, and The Goodbye Girl) signed on to play the U.S.A.'s biggest investment fraudster, the Ponzi scheme master, Bernie Madoff. From the beginning of the biographical film, Richard Dreyfuss narrates the Bernie Madoff biography and he walks us through his "modus operandi" how he conned so many smart and wealthy investors starting in 1960 when his accountant father-in-law introduces a young Bernie Madoff to his own circle of clients, as well as many elderly people who entrusted Bernie Madoff with their life savings.
Bernie's method of convincing investors to continue investing with him was to tell his clients that he was prepared to immediately cut them a cheque for their entire investment plus interest but then they would not be allowed to invest with him again. Madoff had his brother, wife and sons working in his firm and as the story progresses we really are left to wonder whether or not they knew anything about the Ponzi scheme, or did they just believe in Bernie Madoff the investment guru, who was their husband, father or brother.
Also agreeing to play in this non-sanctioned autobiography film "Madoff" are Blythe Danner as Bernie's wife, Peter Scolari as Bernie's brother Peter, Michael Rispoli as the behind the scenes book fixer, Charles Grodin as Carl Shapiro, Frank Whaley as a competitive broker named Harry Markopolos who figures out Bernie's secret method which is simply a fraud. Richard Dreyfuss's real life son Ben Dreyfuss plays the younger Bernie Madoff which makes it easier to believe the evolution of Bernie Madoff over the decades.
Slowly the film peels away each layer of skin one by one, on this onion and we get to see the real Bernie Madoff as the scammer that he really is and then how the S.E.C. (Securities and Exchange Commissions) closes in on him to eventually stop the bleeding and the U.S.A.'s biggest Ponzi scheme. Since the film was originally released as a two part story and it was deluged with commercial breaks I look forward to purchasing the DVD version and watching the film the way it should be seen, without any commercial breaks.
It is an excellent film with great insight into how easily thousands of investors were scammed for decades as long as the return on investments continued to be high and as Bernie would say "we need to continue to grow and find new investors". I give the film two thumbs up. Definitely worth investing your movie viewing time in, but not your money with Bernie Madoff who will remain in prison for his 150 year sentence.
