Perfectly adorable

Don't listen to the negative reviews

All that we are seeing on the screen is happening with real people, real action sequences in the background, forcing the eye to watch as if we were there.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

This series chronicles a tragedy. A man who is flawed invites disaster to others, and especially to his family. Bernard Madoff did not start out as swindler, but became one. To the movie's credit, it offers a candid and plausible portrayal of the disaster that became Bernard Madoff's life. One comes away from this movie asking: How could he have gotten away with it for so long? Madoff didn't make any special efforts to conceal his activities. He banked the money in a major bank, was audited by government agencies, and his clients were sophisticated investors. Yet, it was only after being turned in by his own sons that the Madoff swindle finally stopped. Richard Dreyfus gives one of the great performances of his career as Bernard Madoff, and Blythe Danner is equally convincing as Ruth. The movie avoids demonizing Madoff, instead portraying him as someone caught up in a process that he could not stop. He knew what he was doing was wrong and kept doing it anyway, as long as he could get away with it. It's what happens when his world begins to crumble that provides the drama and the lessons. As the movie shows, Madoff was not operating in a vacuum. He was operating in the open. As long as his customers and enablers were profiting, no questions were asked. It was only after the scheme collapses and people are losing money that Madoff gets in trouble. And for that, he paid the price.

If the great master, Charles Dickens, were alive I do not think even he could ascribe an appellation to a person that would fittingly characterize the very essence of the anti-hero as does the name Madoff. Yes, Bernie Madoff, the man who single handedly pulled off the greatest Ponzi schemes in human history and fraudulently MADE OFF with so many innocents' money which he laundered to the tune of 65 Billion, yes, with a "B" bucks.Richard Dreyfuss and Blythe Danner pulled off, I think, one of the greatest acting efforts of their careers. Their portrayals of a man and his wife were picture perfect. I urge you if you have not seen "Madoff" look it up on the ABC web site or search your cable network to see if it will be broadcast again. Understatedly, it is a docudrama fit for our time.I kept wishing there were a film group dedicated to the analysis of this portrayal of Madoff because there are so many topics of human nature including greed, narcissism and the intrinsic sickness of anarchistic capitalism gone wild that are worthy of discussion. Moreover, there are other films such as Woody Allen's "Crimes and Misdemeanors," "Match Point," The Coen Brothers "A Serious Man" "Wall Street" and yes, even Holocaust films that speak to the moral lengths and extremes a person can and will go to serve his own ends or conversely to protect others even at his own expense.The story of "Madoff" is so complex that it speaks to not only his life but to all of our lives albeit to our nation's life as well. It should give us pause to ask is this the nation we truly want to be. Or is there another way where as Martin Luther King said "... justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream."

More screen time needed to be given to the victims in this tale of embezzlement via the Ponzi scheme method.Richard Dreyfuss give wonderful performances as Bernie and Ruthie Madoff. While they're living the life of glamor, there is something about them that even when the good times prevailed, they were down to earth. Danner often comes across of the Jewish wife seeking status with that drink in her hand.Madoff could have probably continued to get away with defrauding so many investors had it not been for the economic downturn of 2008.The first part of the show would have required a degree in advanced economics from the viewers. Quantitative analysis is not exactly the most exciting thing to show on screen.Other than those dedicated investors who lost their shirts from Bernie, the family suffered a great deal as well as shown.

An interesting story based on Bernie Madoff the so called wizard of Wall Street, well played by the entire cast, and informative of what people are willing to do acquiring your money, Madoff may have started out simply trying to impress his friends and family as they stated he had it all before the Ponzi affair, so either he did it and it spun out of control or he became wrapped up in the illusion of his vain wizardry, maybe both, in either case its sad people become so wrapped up and taken so easily by money, never satisfied with what they got, and need something to fill their void of unhappiness, don't pity the poor man, pity the fool, and delusional wizards, the domino effect of the fallout was a atrocity to all the victims, hopefully a lesson to save others in the Madoff's of the future.