The Wizard of Lies (2017)

Ruth Madoff: Can't we just have quiet?

Bernie Madoff: I can't fall asleep unless I watch something.

Ruth Madoff: You just took a whole fucking bottle of Ambien, Bernie. Sleep's not gonna be your problem.

Bernie Madoff: My mind races.

Ruth Madoff: Fine. Our last night on Earth will be you, me and Judy Garland. How romantic.

Bernie Madoff: Let's not get started, Ruth.

[Bernie takes Ruth's hand]

Bernie Madoff: We had a good life, didn't we?

Ruth Madoff: Hmm. Yeah. Until you ruined it.

It's often fun to see two different team's projects and work on basically the same topic.  Your Deep Impact vs. Armageddon or Dante's Peak vs. Volcano.  Good ideas just seem to happen in twos and sometimes they arrive into the culture at the same time. So having watched The Richard Dreyfuss "Madoff" from 2016, I jumped at the chance to see "The Wizard of Lies" also about Bernie Madoff but starring Robert DeNiro.   *Madoff" was a TV mini-series so I didn't/don't feel obliged to review it on this blog.

Similarities
The two seem to be working off of the same source materials (the events aren't that long ago..like 10 years) and both were filmed in 2015 so only like 6 years after the events. They even both go into details about Bernie's back problems and how he was forced to lay on the floor. They both spend time showing the Madoff family's love for seafood/lobster. -I think this was chosen for some accuracy but also to give the family the proper fancy tropes so as to make them broad strokes understandable/dislikeable.

My own focus were I writing The Bernie Madoff story would have been to focus on Bernie, the regulators, the process, the machinations of how the pyramid was held up, and how it came down with some time for wife/brother and less time for his children.  But, I can understand that I am not a mainstream audience and that for a narrative that works for more people, there needed to be more focus on the sons etc.  A final similarity I noted is that both of these films made a point of signaling out the wealth/prosperity and even celebrity of those effected. This was much emphasis on the victims and not a lot on the system/foundations that allowed this.

Differences
Richard Dreyfus was a better Bernie than De Niro -I know I was surprised- and Blythe Danner was better than Michelle Pfeiffer -again surprising.  Unfortunately, the chemistry between Blythe and Dreyfus was negligible, while Robert and Michelle were good together. It was interesting to me that Dreyfus's Bernie was an interestingly pitiable figure in that his arc included that he knew exactly what he was doing to support everyone -"I'm the magic man." and just not getting caught, while De Niro's was not asking for understanding as he seemed to be of the opinion that he got away with it for so long that it was the fault of everyone else. -His portrayal also seemed to intentionally lack empathy, which I found uncomfortable.

3.7 out 5 stars.