It's extremely difficult to make a film when the title character shows up only briefly, and then in handcuffs, but that was only the first giant problem that faced Jeff Prosserman when he set out to make a movie from "No One Would Listen," Harry Markopolos' book about his decade-long struggle to get someone — anyone — to pay attention.
Markopolos, an investment analyst, was convinced that Bernard Madoff was a crook, that his too-good-to-believe money-making fund was just that. "Chasing Madoff," which opens here today, follows Markopolos and some friends in what became a Sisyphean struggle. Markopolos, with enough evidence to fill a warehouse, could not get the Securities and Exchange Commission (the other SEC, and not the football conference), the Wall Street Journal or anyone else to look under a huge collection of rocks to investigate Madoff.
And it's an ultimate irony that Madoff collapsed his own pyramid when finding new money to pay off earlier investors became impossible.
As a filmmaker, Prosserman's second huge problem was finding a way to turn an investigation, a lot of computer keyboard work, a busy printer and much conversation into something that was visually interesting, even if was just serving as background while Markopolos talked. High praise here for Julian van Mil, the director of photography, and
Gary Tutte and Jeff Bessner, the editors. Van Mil got some fine scenic shots of the cities and buildings where Markopolos and Madoff were, even if they never were together, never talked to one another, and the editors made everything look as if what we see has relevance to what we hear.
Markopolos, who displays increasing paranoia over the fact that he has everything gift-wrapped for an investigator, and no one would open the box. He justifiably fears that someone higher up has put the kibosh on an investigation of Madoff, and he worries that he is becoming a target for silencing.
The movie opens with, "Unfortunately, a True Story," and closes with a dedication to "those who will fall in the next financial crisis." Markopolos claims that it took only five minutes of close, analytic investigation to realize Madoff had created a huge Ponzi scheme, and questions why neither a government oversight group (the SEC) or a newspaper (the Journal) would take a second look at his evidence. So do a number of members of Congress when an investigation begins into why the SEC took no action.
A few members of the group resigned, but criminal charges have yet to be filed, as none have been filed over the banking disaster. Markopolos' cohorts, Frank Casey, Neil Chelo and Gaytri Kachroo, pose the same questions, but there are no answers, only silence, which makes that final dedication so much more powerful.
This is a film that will leave a stomach in turmoil for hours, not just in sympathy for the thousands of people who lost their life savings, but in the knowledge that it will undoubtedly happen again.
Chasing Madoff opens today at the Plaza Frontenac
—Joe