- Network: ABC
- Series Premiere Date: Feb 3, 2016
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Critic Reviews
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It’s all wonderfully led by an unrecognizable Richard Dreyfuss in the leading role and Blythe Danner as his wife, Ruth.... Where Madoff falls short is in developing the man’s complex relationships with his sons, wife and those who beg him to take their money. While the narrative certainly scratches the surface, it’s not often that it delves any deeper as the writers choose instead to grandstand Dreyfuss’ performance as the leading man.
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The first night of Madoff is both entertaining and instructive.... But the first night ends on a breathless cliffhanger, and Thursday’s concluding night resolves that cliffhanger in a way that made me feel cheated of drama. And the TV movie only proceeds to slide further.
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What the production lacks in moral dimension or psychological acuity it occasionally makes up for in entertainment value.... Madoff is Mr. Dreyfuss’s show, though, and while the charismatic character he puts on screen, generous and loyal to a fault, may not jibe with our impression of the real Mr. Madoff, he’s fun to watch.
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Neither particularly bad nor stellar, Madoff is a mildly entertaining, though far from impressive, miniseries with oversimplified depictions of white-collar thieves, bumbling to the point of cartoonish financial analysts, and fraud run rampant.
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It's modestly engaging, but is likely to leave viewers less than satisfied when it's over.
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[Richard Dreyfuss] plays Madoff with the exact mix of charm, chutzpah, and extreme denial you would hope for from the notorious fraudster. Madoff is undeniably compelling in the ways it gives its audience the thrill of watching someone flagrantly break the law. But in the end it feels too puffy and cute.
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Unfailingly exquisite, Danner gives a performance in the last half-hour that offers a glimpse of what Madoff could have been if the script had been less infatuated with the romance of the con and more interested in its human cost.
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Dreyfuss gives a performance that is merely serviceable rather than memorable, while Danner copes with a version of Ruth Madoff that seems regrettably underwritten and underexplored. (Same goes for the sons.) The story is still quite a corker, though--certainly enough to fill four-ish hours of prime-time commercial television, filled with sadness and schadenfreude.
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Dreyfuss impressively keeps Madoff’s villainy human-scaled and, at times, petty, and therefore more potent. The miniseries that is constructed around him, though, is flat and simplistic, with none of the intelligence and intrigue that has elevated other stories set in high finance, “Billions” and “The Big Short.”
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In terms of portraying the numerous subplots surrounding this story, Madoff is a pretty fair juggling act. As for making the tale actually spark to life, that’s a bit of prestidigitation that this straightforward account ultimately can’t muster.
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Madoff feels padded, but also warped with artificial cliffhangers, corny ad-break musical stings, cheap attempts to add thriller elements and an ending that lurches across nearly half of the second night. Still, working from ABC News correspondent Brian Ross' research and book The Madoff Chronicles, the movie has enough juicy details to remain very watchable, and Dreyfuss is having a great time playing this awful man.
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You're left with a glossy summary of events that leaps from point to point with all the drama of a Wikipedia page. [29 Jan/5 Feb 2016, p.104]
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The project is also a bit of a mess. It feels like De Felitta never stops moving his camera, even when simply sitting still might do. And Robbins's script is filled with scenes where characters have largely inconsequential conversations... But at the very least, it's worth tuning in to the miniseries for five or 10 minutes to watch a great actor show off what made him so great in the first place.
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Madoff is a miss, quite unable to measure up either on the outrage/explanation quotient (“The Big Short,” “Too Big to Fail”) or the reveling in billions quotient (“Billions,” naturally, as well as “Wolf of Wall Street”). As a piece of history, the miniseries is hard to follow and a bit too sordid; as a piece of fiction, Madoff feels rushed-off and incomplete.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 11 out of 19
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Mixed: 2 out of 19
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Negative: 6 out of 19
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Feb 9, 2016
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Feb 5, 2016
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Feb 27, 2016