Chasing Madoff (2010)

This documentary explores very interesting aspects of what went on behind the curtains while the massive Bernie Madoff's scheme developed, expanded and ultimately collapsed.However, the documentary wastes the potential by using a very weak and wacky personal storyline anchor, which becomes repetitive and ultimately annoying after one of the main subjects starts putting out his paranoia for the n-th time. The end result is a clumsy piece that bumps from a few high moment between a repetitive cycle of self-pity, delusion and confused thoughts of a man that slide into it after not seeing any results from his push to expose a major fraud in the making.

Well, what a huge disappointment that was. "A look at how one investigator spent ten years trying to expose Bernie Madoff's massive Ponzi scheme."Too bad this one investor, Harry Markopolos, turns out to be one of the most uninteresting people alive. I was looking forward to get detailed information on Madoff, but unfortunately I got to see Markopolos parents, school, church, his extreme paranoia about getting killed and loads of other information I didn't care about.The information in this documentary could have been cut to +/- 30 minutes without all of the useless stuff. It's a shame, because this documentary could have been really great if it would provide more information about Madoff himself.

Harry Markopolos, the man at the center of this documentary, had no clue into what he was about to embark, when his friend, Frank Casey, asked him to check the numbers in a firm that was the 'star' of the investment world. Mr. Casey's intention was to be able to comprehend the success of a powerful man in New York, one Bernard Madoff. It only took Harry five minutes to realize he was looking at the largest fraud perpetrated in the financial annals of the world.The documentary "Chasing Madoff"', conceived by its director, Jeff Prosserman, and based on the book written by Mr. Markopolos, while trying to clarify the way Mr. Madoff was able to fool everyone, is a dull piece of movie-making. The style the director uses does not add anything to the story that has been told and retold after the scandal broke in 2008. Mr. Markopolos and the other principals keep repeating themselves while the main villain of the story, Bernard Madoff is only a passing thought. Harry Markopolos had reasons to believe his life would be in danger. He became paranoid, expecting his death, or the harming to his family. His reports to the SEC went directly to the waste basket, so he should not have worried unnecessarily. The best thing in the documentary is the appearance of Congressman Gary Ackerman questioning the big shots of the SEC, the people who should have detected the fraud and sat idly by.

Read the other reviews. There, you will find two schools of thought; those who rate this documentary ***very*** highly and those who rate is ***very*** poorly. What's going on ? This is, I believe, a microcosm of the United States today where simplistic ideology rules Washington. On one hand, you will find those who argue that more regulation is needed and, on the other hand, those who argue that less regulation is the cure because the bureaucrats in Washington are unable to regulate competently. The facts are that if your local firemen are incompetent, the solution is NOT to eliminate fire-fighters, as some right-wingers argue, but to insure that they are competent. The solution is also NOT to increase the number of firemen, as some left-wingers argue. Essentially, this documentary argues not from the viewpoint of Bernie Madoff's evil, but from the viewpoint of the incompetence of Washington bureaucrats. THAT is the truth.