An exceptionally busy documentary about an exceptionally busy fraudster, Jeff Prosserman’s “Chasing Madoff” covers a decade in the life of whistleblower and Boston securities analyst Harry Markopolos, author of “No One Would Listen,” who recognized within minutes the Ponzi scheme now-convicted criminal Bernard L. Madoff was perpetrating against his trusting clients. “Inside Job” and “Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer” recently covered similar ground in conveying the depth and reaches of the ongoing financial meltdown, and with greater rigor. The subject, however, fascinates: as in the Mafia, Madoff, despite being a “pathological liar,” was a made man, a man whose exceptional reputation forestalled any doubt, let alone queries, about the impossible returns his funds offered investors. Markopolos, dogged, dutiful, makes a fine protagonist in theory. Prosserman’s more seduced by his visual and editing techniques than most viewers will be, but there’s anger (and subject matter) with history’s possible greatest convicted financial criminal to go around. 91m. (Ray Pride)
“Chasing Madoff” opens Friday at River East and Northbrook Court.
Ray Pride is Newcity’s Senior Editor and Film Critic. He is a contributing editor of Filmmaker magazine.
Ray’s history of Chicago Ghost Signs is planned for publication next year. Previews of the project are on Twitter and on Instagram. More photography on Instagram.
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