He generates no sympathy - but then he isn't supposed to. He is never really developed as a character we feel we know, and he seems to inhabit his lifestyle rather than possess it. He has two typical expressions here: crafty cunning, and disbelief shading into horror. Tom Hanks stars as Sherman McCoy, but is more acted upon than acting in this movie. And yet it is enough of a story, and the actors are colorful enough in their different ways, that 'The Bonfire of the Vanities' is an entertaining film, even if it misses the droll qualities of the book. The movie sees mostly the exteriors, and although it is narrated by one of the characters - Peter Fallow, the journalist, played by Bruce Willis - he provides few insights and little verbal grace, serving mostly just to hurry the story along. The Wolfe novel goes inside the characters' minds and lifestyles, showing how they think and what they value.

He does well on the sedate battlefield of Wall Street, but when he runs into real fighters - cops, neighborhood activists, politicians, newspaper reporters, publicity hounds, ambulance-chasing lawyers and his neighbors on the co-op board - he finds he's no match. Sherman McCoy, who makes millions and lives in a Park Avenue duplex, is no less selfish than the others in the novel, but he is not much of a survivor. The movie doesn't seem to despise anyone all that much. My notion is that Wolfe sees every single one of his characters in exactly the same light, as selfish, grasping swine who want to get their hands on everything they can, and whose approaches are suggested by the opportunities they find around them in whatever walk of life they occupy. Brian De Palma's new movie is lacking in just that quality it is not subtle or perceptive about the delicate nuances of motive that inspire these people. The Bonfire of the Vanities, Wolfe's novel about McCoy, was savage and sarcastic, especially in the way it dissected the motives of every single character.

Tom wolfe bonfire of the vanities book