The 12th count is how Bernie Madoff hurt his family, which is Barry Levinson's concern here. Given that the domestic aftermath includes the suicide of one of Madoff's sons, there is no shortage of drama, and the film is well done, on the whole, with a smart script that expects the viewer to keep up with the story without spelling everything out. Nevertheless, I do want to itemize a few problems I had with the program:
1. Everyone is praising De Niro's performance, but I kept wondering when his face had turned to wood. His vocal tone changes, depending on who he is talking to, but his face is immobile. Maybe that's appropriate-- the definitive poker face would be required to bring off such a spectacular fraud. But the rest of the Madoffs are humanized, with a full range of expression and reaction. Why not Bernie, not even when he's alone. (And this isn't the first time I've thought de Niro had reduced his once-subtle skills to frozen-faced dialog delivery.)
2. Easily as fascinating as the demise of the Madoff family is the incompetence of the SEC, and the rivalry between its NYC and Boston offices. The feds were warned about Madoff by an investigator, Harry Markopolos, but they did next to nothing. Has that changed? Was there fallout? Given how crucial it is to the story-- to how Madoff got away with it-- it would have been worth at least a coda.
3. At one point De Niro, as Madoff, blames his investors, too, for what happened, and he's got a point. Anybody who invests their assets in a fund that seems too good to be true has to take some responsibility for the risk. Home Depot's Kenneth Langone (played by Ray Iannicelli), who in this script asks exactly the right questions, walked away from a deal with Madoff just two weeks before the scandal broke. When greed breeds credulity, you're playing with fire. But "The Wizard of Lies" treats the victims as if they were innocents, even going so far as to create a mosaic of their faces, each of which becomes a pixel in a portrait of Madoff. Call me an existentialist, if you will, because I am, but I say his investors each made a conscious choice: never mind due diligence with your investments, just buy into the cash cow so you can cash in.