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''The Wizard of Lies'' is a 2017 American television
biopic A biographical film or biopic () is a film that dramatizes the life of a non-fictional or historically-based person or people. Such films show the life of a historical person and the central character's real name is used. They differ from docu ...
film directed by
Barry Levinson Barry Lee Levinson (born April 6, 1942) is an American filmmaker, comedian and actor. Levinson's best-known works are mid-budget comedy drama and drama films such as ''Diner'' (1982); '' The Natural'' (1984); ''Good Morning, Vietnam'' (1987); ' ...
and written by
Sam Levinson Samuel Levinson (born January 8, 1985) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is the son of Academy Award-winning director Barry Levinson. In 2010, he received his first writing credit as a co-writer for the action comedy film '' Operation: Endg ...
, Sam Baum, and John Burnham Schwartz, based on the 2011 non-fiction book of the same name by Diana B. Henriques. The film stars
Robert De Niro Robert Anthony De Niro Jr. ( , ; born August 17, 1943) is an American actor. Known for his collaborations with Martin Scorsese, he is considered to be one of the best actors of his generation. De Niro is the recipient of various accolades ...
as businessman and fraudster
Bernie Madoff Bernard Lawrence Madoff ( ; April 29, 1938April 14, 2021) was an American fraudster and financier who was the admitted mastermind of the largest Ponzi scheme in history, worth about $64.8 billion. He was at one time chairman of the NASDAQ ...
,
Michelle Pfeiffer Michelle Marie Pfeiffer (; born April 29, 1958) is an American actress and producer. A prolific performer whose screen work spans over four decades, she became one of Hollywood's most bankable stars and popular sex symbols during the 1980s ...
as his wife
Ruth Madoff Ruth Madoff ( ; Alpern; born May 18, 1941) is the widow of Bernie Madoff, the convicted American financial fraudster who served a prison sentence for a criminal financial scheme until his death in April 2021. After her husband's arrest for his ...
, and Alessandro Nivola as their older son
Mark Madoff Mark David Madoff ( ; March 11, 1964 – December 11, 2010) was an American financier, best known for his role in exposing the multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme committed by his father, Bernie Madoff. Personal life Madoff was born and raised ...
. It aired on
HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...
on May 20, 2017.


Plot

Bernard Madoff founded his company on
Wall Street Wall Street is an eight-block-long street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs between Broadway in the west to South Street and the East River in the east. The term "Wall Street" has become a metonym for t ...
in the early 1960s, which, over time, turned into one of the largest investment funds. Madoff had enjoyed a reputation as a successful and influential financier, broker, financial consultant, and generous philanthropist. He employs his sons, Mark and Andrew, and his wife, Ruth. In 2008, it became known that, over the past 16 years, his firm had run the largest
Ponzi scheme A Ponzi scheme (, ) is a form of fraud that lures investors and pays profits to earlier investors with funds from more recent investors. Named after Italian businessman Charles Ponzi, the scheme leads victims to believe that profits are comi ...
in history. The resulting scandal lead to multibillion-dollar losses and the arrest of Madoff, who was later sentenced to 150 years in prison. Lawyer Martin London, Mark Madoff's father-in-law, advises Bernie Madoff's sons to turn their father to the authorities. Bernie Madoff admits to FBI agents that he had been operating a Ponzi scheme since the 1970s. In 2000,
Harry Markopolos Harry M. Markopolos (born October 22, 1956) is an American former securities industry executive and a forensic accounting and financial fraud investigator. From 1999 to 2008, Markopolos uncovered evidence that suggested that Bernie Madoff's wea ...
testified before the US House that he believed the Madoff's company was a fraudulent Ponzi scheme because the company's gains never fluctuated up and down. In 2005, Madoff does not want to give investigators his
Depository Trust Company Depository Trust Company (DTC), founded in 1973, is a New York corporation that performs the functions of a central securities depository as part of the US National Market System. DTC annually settles transactions worth hundreds of trillions o ...
(DTC) account number but complies with their request in an unsuspecting manner. Madoff explains that all the SEC had to do was to make a call to DTC to verify the supposed assets of his advisory business and they would have realised right there and then that there were in fact no assets held in the firm's DTC account and the entire operation was a fraud. No phone call from the SEC to DTC was made. By the start of the 2008
Great Recession in the United States The Great Recession in the United States was a severe financial crisis combined with a deep recession. While the recession officially lasted from December 2007 to June 2009, it took many years for the economy to recover to pre-crisis levels of ...
, numerous clients start pouring into Madoff's firm to withdraw their money. Madoff does not have the money to return, however, and realizes that his fraud will inevitably be exposed. He tells his wife and sons about the Ponzi scheme, and his sons are left with no choice but to turn him in. Madoff and his wife attempt suicide, but are rescued by police.
Clawback The term clawback or claw back refers to any money or benefits that have been given out, but are required to be returned (clawed back) due to special circumstances or events, such as the monies having been received as the result of a financial crim ...
suits are filed against Madoff's sons. Mark Madoff commits suicide, while Andrew dies of cancer. Before the latter's death, he says, "My father is dead to me." Ruth divorces Madoff and blames him for Mark's death. While talking with a journalist in prison, Madoff refuses to take responsibility for ruining his victims' lives, even blaming them for "letting" him take advantage of them. He then asks, "Am I a
sociopath Psychopathy, sometimes considered synonymous with sociopathy, is characterized by persistent antisocial behavior, impaired empathy and remorse, and bold, disinhibited, and egotistical traits. Different conceptions of psychopathy have been ...
?"


Cast

*
Robert De Niro Robert Anthony De Niro Jr. ( , ; born August 17, 1943) is an American actor. Known for his collaborations with Martin Scorsese, he is considered to be one of the best actors of his generation. De Niro is the recipient of various accolades ...
as
Bernard Madoff Bernard Lawrence Madoff ( ; April 29, 1938April 14, 2021) was an American fraudster and financier who was the admitted mastermind of the largest Ponzi scheme in history, worth about $64.8 billion. He was at one time chairman of the NASDAQ ...
*
Michelle Pfeiffer Michelle Marie Pfeiffer (; born April 29, 1958) is an American actress and producer. A prolific performer whose screen work spans over four decades, she became one of Hollywood's most bankable stars and popular sex symbols during the 1980s ...
as
Ruth Madoff Ruth Madoff ( ; Alpern; born May 18, 1941) is the widow of Bernie Madoff, the convicted American financial fraudster who served a prison sentence for a criminal financial scheme until his death in April 2021. After her husband's arrest for his ...
* Alessandro Nivola as
Mark Madoff Mark David Madoff ( ; March 11, 1964 – December 11, 2010) was an American financier, best known for his role in exposing the multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme committed by his father, Bernie Madoff. Personal life Madoff was born and raised ...
*
Hank Azaria Henry Albert Azaria ( ; born April 25, 1964) is an American actor, comedian, and writer. He is known for voicing many characters in the animated sitcom ''The Simpsons'' (1989–present), most notably Moe Szyslak, Chief Wiggum, Comic Book Guy, Sn ...
as Frank DiPascali * Nathan Darrow as
Andrew Madoff Andrew Madoff ( ; April 8, 1966 – September 3, 2014) was an American financier, best known for his role in exposing the financial crimes of his father, Bernie Madoff, whose Ponzi scheme has been widely described as the most successful in history ...
* Sydney Gayle as Emily Madoff * Lily Rabe as Catherine Hooper * Kristen Connolly as Stephanie Madoff *
Kathrine Narducci Kathrine Narducci (; born November 22, 1965) is an American actress, known for her role as Charmaine Bucco, Artie Bucco's wife, on the HBO crime drama series ''The Sopranos'' (1999–2007). Her film credits include ''A Bronx Tale'' (1993), ' ...
as Eleanor Squillari * Steve Coulter as Martin London * Shivam Chopra as Male Student *
Michael Kostroff Michael Kostroff (born May 22, 1961) is an American actor. He appeared on the HBO program ''The Wire'' as defense attorney Maurice Levy. Kostroff starred in the fifth season of the series and appeared in all four earlier seasons as a guest star. ...
as Peter Madoff * Clem Cheung as Denny Chin * Diana B. Henriques as Herself * Ben Hammer as Carl J. Shapiro * Matt Fischel as
Jeffry Picower Jeffry M. Picower (May 5, 1942 – October 25, 2009) was an American investor involved in the Madoff investment scandal. He was the largest beneficiary of Madoff's Ponzi scheme, and his widow agreed to have his estate settle the claims again ...


Production

On August 27, 2015
Michelle Pfeiffer Michelle Marie Pfeiffer (; born April 29, 1958) is an American actress and producer. A prolific performer whose screen work spans over four decades, she became one of Hollywood's most bankable stars and popular sex symbols during the 1980s ...
and Alessandro Nivola joined the film to play wife
Ruth Madoff Ruth Madoff ( ; Alpern; born May 18, 1941) is the widow of Bernie Madoff, the convicted American financial fraudster who served a prison sentence for a criminal financial scheme until his death in April 2021. After her husband's arrest for his ...
and older son Mark Madoff, respectively. On September 9, 2015
Hank Azaria Henry Albert Azaria ( ; born April 25, 1964) is an American actor, comedian, and writer. He is known for voicing many characters in the animated sitcom ''The Simpsons'' (1989–present), most notably Moe Szyslak, Chief Wiggum, Comic Book Guy, Sn ...
joined the film as Frank DiPascali. On September 10, 2015 Nathan Darrow, Kristen Connolly,
Kathrine Narducci Kathrine Narducci (; born November 22, 1965) is an American actress, known for her role as Charmaine Bucco, Artie Bucco's wife, on the HBO crime drama series ''The Sopranos'' (1999–2007). Her film credits include ''A Bronx Tale'' (1993), ' ...
, and Steve Coulter were cast as
Andrew Madoff Andrew Madoff ( ; April 8, 1966 – September 3, 2014) was an American financier, best known for his role in exposing the financial crimes of his father, Bernie Madoff, whose Ponzi scheme has been widely described as the most successful in history ...
, Stephanie Madoff, Eleanor Squillari, and Martin London, respectively. Diana B. Henriques was also cast as herself. On 11 September 2015, Lily Rabe was cast as Catherine Hooper.
Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as act ...
on the film began on August 31, 2015, in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. John Burnham Schwartz, Sam Baum and
Sam Levinson Samuel Levinson (born January 8, 1985) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is the son of Academy Award-winning director Barry Levinson. In 2010, he received his first writing credit as a co-writer for the action comedy film '' Operation: Endg ...
were credited as the film's writers. Diana Henriques’s ''The Wizard of Lies: Bernie Madoff and The Death of Trust'', and Laurie Sandell’s ''Truth and Consequences: Life Inside the Madoff Family'' were credited as additional source material.


Reception


Critical response

On
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...
, the film has a rating of 73%, based on 52 reviews, with a
weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...
rating of 6.5/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "''The Wizard of Lies'' doesn't really shed much new light on its fact-based story, but thanks to solid direction and a talented cast, it still proves consistently watchable." On
Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
, the film has a score of 67 out of 100, based on 26 critics, indicating "favorable reviews". The film has a three-star rating on the
Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
website, with the reviewer praising De Niro's performance.


Ratings

The film's premiere drew 1.5 million viewers, making it HBO's largest premiere viewership for an HBO film in four years; additional replays and viewings through the network's streaming service brought the film's total viewers to 2.4 million for its premiere weekend.


Awards and nominations


Soundtrack

''The Wizard of Lies (Music from the
HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...
Film)'' was released digitally May 19, 2017, the day before the film's premiere.


See also

* ''Madoff'' (miniseries) *
Pyramid scheme A pyramid scheme is a business model that recruits members via a promise of payments or services for enrolling others into the scheme, rather than supplying investments or sale of products. As recruiting multiplies, recruiting becomes quickly i ...


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wizard Of Lies, The 2017 television films 2017 films 2017 biographical drama films 2010s American films 2010s English-language films American biographical drama films Films directed by Barry Levinson Films based on non-fiction books Films set in the Great Recession Films about businesspeople Films shot in New York City Films produced by Robert De Niro Films about con artists HBO Films films Drama films based on actual events Biographical films about fraudsters Cultural depictions of Bernie Madoff Madoff investment scandal