Tom Wolfe’s 1987 novel about the Greed Decade was penetrating. prophetic and incisively satirical. Director Brian De Palma’s $45 million film version of the book is superficial, shopworn and cartoonish.
Let’s start with the miscasting . . .
Tom Hanks is a comic actor of proven gifts. But he is not Sherman McCoy, the patrician bond trader whose career mirrors the rise and fall of such Wall Street “masters of the universe” as Michael Milken.
In the book, McCoy is imperious, a shallow user; Hanks plays him as goofy and sympathetic.
Melanie Griffiths has the curves and the Southern Belle voice of McCoy’s mistress, Maria Ruskin, but the movie Maria is a cupcake who spouts malapropisms (“I read spasmodically”) and arouses the limp McCoy with such come-ons as “I’m a sucker for a soft dick, Shuh-mun.”
The story pivots on one incident: Driving Maria home from the airport in his Mercedes, Sherman takes a wrong turn and ends up in the South Bronx.
Frightened by two black men blocking the ramp to the highway, they run down and critically injure one of the men while racing to escape.
Later, they conspire to hide the incident from the police. When the truth surfaces, McCoy becomes the centre of a media witch hunt.
Reverend Bacon (John Hancock) – a black religious leader – shouts about justice and lawsuits, while Bronx DA Abe Weiss (F Murray Abraham) – with an eye on becoming mayor – plots to throw the book at McCoy to win the minority vote.
Meanwhile, McCoy’s marriage to “social X-ray” Judy (Kim Cattrall) collapses, along with his career.
Bruce Willis is cast as Peter Fallow, the sleazy tabloid reporter (British in the book) who writes lies about McCoy to boost his own career. Willis also narrates the film, reciting some of Wolfe’s choicest prose and giving the illogical and misleading impression that Fallow is based on Wolfe.
De Palma has hyperbolised Wolfe’s stinging indictment of New York society into a flat-out farce, and as miscalculations go, this one’s a lulu. The author wisely had nothing to do with the film.
Sherman McCoy
Tom Hanks Maria Ruskin
Melanie Griffith Judy McCoy
Kim Cattrall Peter Fallow
Bruce Willis Jed Kramer
Saul Rubinek Judge Leonard White
Morgan Freeman Reverend Bacon
John Hancock Tom Killian
Kevin Dunn Albert Fox
Clifton James Ray Andruitti
Louis Giambalvo Detective Martin
Barton Heyman Detective Goldberg
Norman Parker Mr McCoy
Donald Moffat Arthur Ruskin
Alan King Caroline Heftshank
Beth Broderick
Director
Brian De Palma
Video
You May Also Like
Harlequin (1980) Director Simon Wincer's second feature is a downright odd attempt to update the story of Rasputin…
Ball-Trap on the Cote Sauvage (1989) Every character in this complex and extraordinary made-for-television comedy film is an easily-recognisable stereotype - seen…
Saturn 3 (1980) Research workers Adam (Kirk Douglas) and Alex (Farrah Fawcett) live an idyllic Adam and Eve existence…
Blood Simple (1984) A supreme gothic thriller made on a shoestring budget, but rich in wit, intrigue, style, moodiness…
Borat (2006) As Borat Sagdiyev, a visitor from Kazakhstan, Sacha Baron Cohen is a balls-out comic revolutionary, right…
Brubaker (1980) Brubaker is based on the real-life experiences of Tom Murton, who worked as a warden in a…
Band of Thieves (1962) Seven of the prisoners at Gaunstone Gaol have been encouraged to take up Trad jazz by…
Best Of Times, The (1986) Robin Williams and Kurt Russell play two of life's failures in this all-American whimsy set in…
