The Crooked E: The Unshredded Truth About Enron

Fun, but not enough Brian Dennehy or Mike Farrell
For a movie about naked, corrupt greed that by rights should make you angry, "The Crooked E" is still fun because it won't let you forget it's a formulaic, cheesy TV movie. It's billed as starring Brian Dennehy, but he's really a peripheral character who shows up less than half a dozen times as a mentor of sorts for the main character, a fresh-faced, newly hired Enron underling. Dennehy elevates the movie every time he shows up, though. Because the movie revolves around the underling's ups and downs, Mike Farrell as Ken Lay is also mostly wasted in a largely two-dimensional role, giving pep talks to the troops about the stock even as he was dumping it.

If you go in understanding that this movie isn't about Brian Dennehy's or Mike Farrell's characters, and is rather cliched in its moralizing, you'll have a good time.

This was pretty good!
Honestly, I think the more negative reviews are because the subject of the story is so painful to watch. Then again I watched this because I LOOVE Christian Kane. I almost didn't though because it was such a depressing and sad memory but acting-wise, it was really a pretty good movie.

And of course, Christian was excellent. He played a young college-grad who got caught up in the big leagues and big money and ignored the warning signs of pending doom; he was progressively horrible to his fiancee and finally see the big e falling. You had to get through the beginning of the movie but I actually liked it in the end. Worth watching. Well done, CK.

THE BRIAN CRUVER STORY
The movie is about Brian Cruver who hired on to Enron in 2001. His life at Enron runs parallel to the company as he over extends his credit based on future earnings. About the best thing you can say about the movie is it shows us how the microcosm reflects the macrocosm, or vice-versa. This is a dummy down version of what happened.

It is not political, nor does it do justice to havoc Enron did to the world, but rather focused on a small group of people in one department and how it affected their lives, including buying more Enron stock as it was tanking because they were all drinking Enron Kool-aid. Don't expect a hard hitting docudrama.

This is a rather lame, made for TV type movie, which also focuses on how Enron ruined "the relationship." Mike Farrell (Alan Alda light) gives us a stinker of a performance as Ken Lay, clearly miscast for the role.

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