Elora

I expected to see a movie about Madoff! Not a documentary about Harry!!! Very poor and boring... many people left in the middle of the movie!!!

Chasing Madoff is a good movie for understanding one man's fight against a corrupt and blind government, investment community and financial industry in general. The problem is that it doesn't really explain Madoff nor his protectors or his pursuers. We come to understand that Harry Markopolos was a remarkable, honest and tenacious man who realizes that he was doing his job when no one else was. For that reason I can't rate this movie any higher than I have. Good story, regardless.

I only give this movie a low rating because obviously documentaries do not appeal to everyone. Nevertheless I found the story of the men who discovered and tried relentlessly to blow the whistle on the Madoff fraud fascinating and frustrating: nearly ten years of evidence amassed against him and they could not get anyone, his major investors, the press and even the SEC, who are charged with regulating investments, to act against him. Also a great study of one man's integrity and strength in the face of indifference, corruption and massive international financial and government fraud; an undertaking that nearly cost him his mental health and potentially endangered his family. Really opens your eyes to questions of the reality of evil, greed and the apparent enforced helplessness of the 'average' individual. Harry Markopolos proved himself to be far above the average individual; unfortunately, that realization came too late for Madoff's victims, one of whom offered the advice to the effect that a piece of paper stating that your investment is growing is not money in your pocket. Caveat emptor.

This is really about the guy who investigated Madoff, not about Madoff. And we see this guy's wife, mother and poodle, kids, marriage photos, high school photos... We don't care pal. We want to know Madoff and his scheme, not about you.

This is a must see film for anyone who has ever invested money. The film opens with investment fund developer/analyst Harry Markopolos examining the most successfully managed options fund. This was the Bernie Madoff fund. It took him a very few minutes to realize that the fund was a Ponzi scheme. The magnitude of the fraud was in the billions of dollars and world wide. It was the largest fraud ever perpetrated. The film is interesting and compelling throughout. You will never again be in awe of the the people who run the international wealth corporations. Also you will not rest assured that all or any of the agencies and publications created to protect the public will do so.

It was an interesting documentary. Certain things they could have left out.

The movie Chasing Madoff has been out for almost one week and not one review. I'm disappointed, and I suppose a little lazy. On its first weekend I went to see the movie, and found it well worth the overpriced admission and bottle water. When Madoff's ponzi scheme collapsed in 2008, we learned a lot about the size of the scheme (50 billion), some of the people who were financially destroyed, and later on about his prison sentence (150 years) and his son's suicide. What we did not learn about was that a small group of men, and in particular a man named Harry Markopolos, turned over enough evidence to the Security and Exchange Commission ten years before to end Madoff's growing financial crime. This movie fills that gap, detailing how these men struggled to get the SEC to act against Madoff, and the growing fear felt especially by Markopolos as the man in the lead and the power of many of the people involved. He was just an ordinary guy in the world of investment finance to whom the truth still meant something in life. Moving back and forth from the guys, to Madoff, to the SEC, to journalists and the Congressional hearings, the director has produced a movie as fast paced and exciting as any action blockbuster. All that was missing was a little more about the wife of Markopolos, who was clearly quite brave herself, and what really drove this man Madoff. Perhaps the director tried and found that both were reluctant to talk. The ending of the film is not entirely happy, but it does leave one with the belief that there are good people in the world, and that ultimately they can make a difference.

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