Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.5

The Wizard of Lies Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 3, 2017

Do you have a “money manager”? Many Americans entrust their so-called “nest eggs” to corporate types of whom they have little knowledge, resorting to judging those folks solely by the returns they foster. My wife recently told me about a podcast she had listened to where some national data mining uncovered the fact that some of the highest paid money managers only managed to outperform a down and dirty basic index fund an insanely small amount of the time (like 1%), and then not by much (again, like 1%). Even those who pay attention to their returns might have been seduced by an unlikely charlatan, one Bernard Madoff (Robert De Niro), who operated what amounted to a Ponzi scheme which resulted in what many analysts have called the largest case of financial fraud ever perpetrated in the United States, and who simply made up the earnings he reported to his clients. Madoff’s surname, which served as a fitting summation for what he did (“made off” with others’ funds), has become synonymous with high powered malfeasance, but The Wizard of Lies takes that surname as an implied linking element for the entire Madoff family, revealing the actually kind of horrifying domino effect Bernie's criminal activities had on his wife and two sons. Anchored by some pitch perfect performances by De Niro and Michelle Pfeiffer as Ruth Madoff, as well as the involvement of journalist Diana B. Henriques playing herself (Henriques interviewed Madoff in prison as part of the background work on her book The Wizard of Lies, upon which this made for television film is based), The Wizard of Lies doesn't really provide any ultimate answers for why Madoff did what he did, but it's still a riveting portrait of a man whose unlikely exploits lead him to rather pointedly ask an unanswered question at the close of the film: "Do you think I'm a sociopath?".

The story begins in medias res, with Madoff hurriedly writing checks for insane amounts of money, evidently handing out bonuses in the tens of millions months earlier than his company typically did, something that alarms his sons Mark (Alessandro Nivola) and Andrew (Nathan Darrow). When they confront their father, he quietly tells them he needs to talk, and he calls a family meeting back at their Manhattan penthouse, where he reveals to the two of them, along with a shocked and perhaps even confused Ruth, that his entire business, or at least this part of it, is more or less imaginary. For years Madoff has been taking money from Peter to pay Paul, so to speak, and the “game” has reached its tipping point. Madoff assures his kin that they will be alright, since there is still “a few hundred million” lying around and after just a few more days of finagling, Madoff will have taken care of everyone and will at that point turn himself in to authorities. When the boys receive independent legal counsel that going along with this plan will make them accessories to a crime, they grab the Wall Street bull by the horns, and do the unthinkable, calling the FBI to inform them of their father’s misdeeds.

That sets the main part of the tale into motion, with Madoff’s truly staggering subterfuge coming to light, and literally thousands of victims left more or less penniless as a result. While there is some interesting background information on the ins and out of Madoff’s wheeling and dealing, The Wizard of Lies is at least as interested in the family dynamics of the Madoff clan as things unravel as it is in giving a “technical” explanation, and that’s actually a good thing, since the human emotions are so raw throughout so much of the film, at least in terms of everyone other than Madoff himself. A framing device of sorts which includes Henriques, playing herself, interviewing Madoff in prison, gives appropriate context, but it also repeatedly reveals a rather dissociative personality, with Madoff somehow emotionally removed from the havoc he’s wreaked.

The film is often devastating in its portrayal of the family dysfunctions, which frankly aren’t as dysfunctional as one might expect, at least with regard to the relationship between Bernie and Ruth. The situation with the boys is markedly different, however, and some of the most emotionally turbulent material comes from how the sons react to both of their parents when all hell breaks loose. One of the most devastating sequences documents the sad fate of Mark Madoff, and the bristling anger felt by even in laws is amply depicted. There are a couple of questionable sidebars here, including some oddly surreal imagery and one scene in particular that suggests Bernie is on the edge of a suicidal breakdown, but generally speaking things are anchored in a very realistic ambience, buoyed by a really remarkable performance by De Niro, and excellent work by the large supporting cast.

The Wizard of Lies Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Wizard of Lies is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of HBO with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Shot with Arri Alexa cameras, this has the typically sharp and sleek if slightly flat look of this particular technology, with detail levels routinely high throughout the presentation, especially in the many extreme close-ups. Perhaps surprisingly for a "ripped from the headlines" docudrama, there's a fair amount of grading going on, including cool blue tones in the prison scenes, and some warmer hues in flashbacks documenting happier times for the Madoffs, but detail levels tend to be largely unaffected. Some of the dimly lit moments like the many interview scenes don't have much in the way of shadow definition, but the framings are generally fairly tight in these scenes anyway, consisting largely of the faces of Madoff and Henriques. There are no issues with compression anomalies or any image instability.

The Wizard of Lies Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Wizard of Lies features a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that offers occasional good surround activity courtesy of scenes like raucous court proceedings, or even the weird dreamlike sequence where Bernie is having a rare interaction with his conscience while Judy Garland warbles "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" on the television. But a lot of the film plays out in quieter (if sometimes rather intense) dialogue scenes, and while not offering a glut of immersion, those do offer excellent fidelity and clear presentation.

The Wizard of Lies Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Cast Interviews (1080p; 7:31) actually contains a fair amount of footage from the film with just a few interstitial comments by some of the cast and plays more like a marketing promo, which I suspect it was on HBO.

The Wizard of Lies Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If you're like a lot of us, you get your brokerage statements, give them a once over, and then promptly forget about them. Of course, if you're like me, you're certainly not dealing in the hundreds of millions of dollars like most of Madoff's clients were, but the cautionary tale The Wizard of Lies spins holds true no matter what the tax bracket: no one should be trusted absolutely with your money, no matter what their reputation or their seeming efficiency at getting you outrageous returns. This made for television effort may not answer any questions (and perhaps there aren't any satisfactory answers), but it provides a field day for a remarkable cast and it's consistently compelling, even if it's also extremely disturbing. Technical merits are strong, and even without much in the way of supplements The Wizard of Lies comes Recommended.