'Madoff': ABC's Ponzi Scheme Miniseries Cheats Us Out of Drama

In Madoff, a four-hour TV-movie spread over two nights starting Wednesday on ABC, Richard Dreyfuss is Bernie Madoff, the financier who bilked clients out of billions of dollars in the largest Ponzi scheme ever perpetrated. Dreyfuss dives into the role the way Uncle Scrooge dives into vats of cash; the actor displays all the vigor and cockiness he had at the start of his career — not just Jaws but, more to the point, his title role in 1974’s The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, all hustle and giggles.

Dreyfuss gets the giggles in early, when Madoff is riding high, juggling scores of clients, and reveling in the big price-tag goodies he can bestow upon his wife, Ruth (a wonderfully silky Blythe Danner), his brother (Peter Scolari, doing his nervous thing), and his sons Mark (Tom Lipinski) and Andrew (Danny Deferrari).
The first night of Madoff is both entertaining and instructive. Written by Ben Robbins and directed by Raymond De Felitta, Madoff frequently uses Bernie to tell his own story, and Dreyfuss’s wry voice-over narration can be pointed and funny as well as instructive in the ways of high finance. Those first two hours, which chronicle the way Madoff built his business, are filled with meetings with clients, friends, and client-friends (with Bernie, there wasn’t much difference). It’s nice to see Charles Grodin pop up as philanthropist Carl Shapiro — the way Grodin plays him, I wanted to see an hour-long show just about Shapiro administering to his charities.

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. Once Madoff’s scheme starts being investigated by someone other than the tragically ignored whistleblower Harry Markopolis (Frank Whaley, superb and understated as always), the production becomes wearyingly predictable. Even if you don’t know or forgot the specific details, Robbins’ script follows the standard arc of such stories — the guy flying high, brought low.

It’s left to Dreyfuss to pull a last-minute near-save: Once Bernie is in prison, the actor shows us how Madoff got a bit of his swagger back: “In here, I was the guy who stole $50 billion; the greatest thief in history.” And Dreyfuss never lets you down when it comes to swagger. Too bad the movie ultimately lets the actor down.

Madoff airs Wednesday and Thursday nights at 8 p.m. on ABC.