There’s something particularly compelling, and nerve-racking, about watching an elaborate liar squirm—Matt Damon in The Informant!, Hayden Christensen in Shattered Glass, and, in the new ABC mini-series Madoff, Richard Dreyfuss as one of the grandest liars of the 21st century, Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff, monster of New York finance and, probably, sociopath.
Madoff, which runs in two parts on back-to-back nights starting February 3, doesn’t delve too deeply into this ghoul’s psychology, but Dreyfuss sniffs him out anyway, giving a mesmerizing, slyly funny performance that’s his best work in ages…