The best scene in The Wizard of Lies, Barry Levinson’s restrained character study of Bernie Madoff and family, is when Michelle Pfeiffer, playing Ruth Madoff, the wife of Robert De Niro’s almost mythologically dishonest financier, rides the elevator down from her penthouse apartment to the building lobby. This is after Madoff’s elaborate Ponzi scheme, defrauding friends, clients and even family of billions of fraudulently “invested” dollars, was revealed in the press – and every time the elevator bell rings and the elevator stops to let in another passenger during the descent, Ruth’s face betrays another silent pang of agony. There’s no escape from her husband’s shame, or his victims and haters, or even any way to persuade people that she wasn’t in on her husband’s scheme. It’s all there in that elevator. And while Pfeiffer and De Niro are palpably credible as the wealthy, inscrutable couple, the depiction of Madoff’s wife and two sons as innocent and non-complicit is less than entirely convincing – at least as presented here, in a screenplay based on the book by Diana B. Henriques, who portrays herself, interviewing De Niro’s Madoff in prison-visit scenes that frame the story. Hank Azaria is a breakout supporting star as Madoff’s knowing (and sleazy) co-conspirator, but this drama, like the real-life accounts of this financial story, leaves more questions unanswered than explained. Watch for the performances – not the insight. For a full review, see David Hinckley's All Along the Watchtower.

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