Oliver Stone’s “Wallstreet” is a fast paced-rise and fall story that created one of the most iconic characters of all time, Gordon Gecko. While it’s aged fairly well, moments of mainstream pull this movie back from being perfect.
In Wallstreet, Budd Fox (played by Charlie Sheen) is a stock broker at a decent firm with his eyes set on greatness. His biggest idol: Gordon Gecko (Michael Douglas). Gecko is a power hungry bussiness man who breaks the rules for his own greedy desires. After months of trying, Fox finally makes it into Gecko’s inner circle and begins doing detective work, breaking the laws of insider trading. When Gecko’s greed hits too close to home with Fox, he sets out to save his father’s job (played by Martin Sheen) and take Gecko down.
Wallstreet gives the viewer an inside look into the intense and often times illegal innerworkings of the New York stock exchange. Stone’s fast paced dialogue keeps the story flowing and moving faster than a New York minute. Although I know nothing about the stock market, I was able to follow the film easily. Stone takes odd moments to highlight with lighting which are interesting yet feel like they don’t belong in the grand scheme. Charlie and Martin Sheen have great chemistry as father and son and their relationship is a great metaphor for old world/new world clash. Gecko is the love-to-hate kinda villain and Douglas pulls him off with just enough vulnerability to keep him from being pure evil which makes him much more accessible as a character.
The biggest flaw in this movie comes during the second and third act when Darien Taylor (played by Darryl Hannah). Darien is the typical love interest for Bud that really adds nothing to the story and causes the film to meander a bit. If I wanted a lame romance and an campy 80′s sillouhette love scene, I would be watching Top Gun. If Stone had ignored typical story elements, Wallstreet could have been something original but it Hannah manages to shave a star off an almost perfect movie.
4/5
