Please don't spend money on this.

Highly Overrated But Still Good

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

I was somewhat surprised by this biopic, since I'm well-acquainted with the modern Ponzi scheme story and $65 Billion ripoff committed by private investment firm. But even for those familiar with the general story, the documentary provides a fascinating portrait of the Madoff family and the central characters. Overall it reminds me of an epic Greek tragedy.The principal crime committed by Bernie Madoff is clearcut. In essence Madoff run a hedge fund that were one big hoax based on a pyramid investment scheme. All ROIs were fictitious and existing investors were paid by the money provided by subsequent investors. Aside from defrauding rich individuals of European royalty, Madoff took advantage of the fact that he as a jewish investor had excellent contacts to other wealthy American jews, which allowed him to swindle countless of the latter of all their retirement savings. All in all, in the end it led to countless tragedies and suicides on both continents.The financial thriller behind it has been well-told by previous accounts, particularly 'No One Would Listen' by Harry Markopolos (i.e. the financial analyst struggled to expose the fraud for many years). It's also true that the ramifications would have been much more limited if the SEC would have done their job properly.However, what this biopic does is following Bernie Madoff and the effects of the exposure on his own family, i.e. particularly his wife Ruth and his two adult sons. It seems as his family was completely unaware of the fraud and the movie does a good job in explaining how his sons never got the information from their dominating father. Later, when it all blew up the fraud also wreaked havoc on the lives of his wife and sons.In the end, it was all for nothing. The family members would lived longer and happier lives without massive fraud committed by the Bernard. While the portrait of him is by no means completely unsympathetic, he remains seemingly oblivious even to this day to the devastation he caused in so many lives, including to those nearest to him.The main roles played by Robert de Niro and Michelle Pfeiffer are brilliant, but also the less-known actors playing his two sons.

A chronicle of Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme, which defrauded his clients of billions of dollars. The Wizard of Lies packs a dark but also captivating performance by Robert De Niro who shines as Bernie Madoff also it's more than welcome seeing the great Michelle Pfeiffer acting again since 2013's The Family who starred again next to De Niro. The film is based on true events about something that i didn't know honestly and it's good seeing it been translated it on the small screen with a talented cast and wonderful performances from the entire cast. Personally i found the allegations against Madoff quite extreme? I mean common 150 years in prison? which is 1800 weeks? When at the same time are rapists, murderers and psychopaths that are 50 times worse than Madoff but i guess that's how the system works. What Madoff did was bad and wrong but thanks to the great performances by De Niro and Pfeiffer i actually felt a bit bad about their family and the tragedy that happened to their sons. As for flaws with the film? i think it was definitely the run time since there are scenes that weren't that interesting or even important that were needed to be explored but overall The Wizard of Lies is a nice comeback from De Niro after some really terrible movie choices and a welcome return for Pfeiffer as well. (8/10)

I don't believe I have ever seen an HBO film before this one but this was a welcome introduction. It was stellar film-making actually, all involved should take a bow and be really proud. The film grips you from its opening scenes and doesn't let go of your attention even after the credits begin to role. Robert De Niro was so good in this, it was like he became Bernie Madoff, in fact the entire cast was so good it was like watching the entire thing unfold in real time. Bravo! And for what it's worth I believe the sons and the wife did not know.

This film tells the story of the biggest scandal on Wall Street, where a multi-billionaire swindles billions out of his customers in a giant Ponzi scheme.What makes "The Wizard of Lies" interesting and captivating is that it does not get into the technical stuff of Wall Street. It focuses on the human side of the characters, namely their thoughts, their hopes and their dreams. The scene when Mr Madoff tells Mark that he is not up to scratch for the business is really heart breaking. Mark's brief and simple responses tell so much, and the viewers are left to fill in the blanks regarding the disappointment and devastation that Mark must have felt. Mrs Madoff's misfortune of being blamed for something she had no involvement in is very sad as well. The whole film makes me feel very sorry for the Madoff family. "The Wizard of Lies" has good story telling, and it has a good story to tell.