The Wolf of Wall Street. Rated R18+ (high impact sex scenes and drug
use). 179 minutes. Directed by Martin Scorsese. Screenplay by Terence Winter.
Based on the book by Jordan Belfort.
Verdict: Vanity project or cautionary tale? You decide.
If there’s a point to this long, raucous and rambling epic about an
ambitious young stockbroker’s fall from the dizzying heights of a particular
kind of success, it’s difficult to know what it might be.
Through his brokerage firm Stratton Oakmont, Jordan Belfort (Leonardo
DiCaprio at full stretch) ripped off unsuspecting investors in the 1990s.
Before he was finally convicted of fraud and jailed, lots of people suffered
the consequences; except Belfort it would seem, as he went on to the lucrative
international motivational speakers circuit. And why anyone thought that this
sordid tale of debauchery, set in the darkest depths of a moral vacuum, should
take three hours to tell is a complete mystery.
Problematically, Belfort’s fall from a certain kind of power and
influence might be easily considered as unremarkable and equally well-deserved,
and it is odd that Scorsese and DiCaprio considered his tale of drug- and
sex-crazed indulgence a worthy subject for their fifth cinematic collaboration.
The only revelations are the extraordinary, break-out performance from
Australian-born Margot Robbie (Neighbours) as Belfort’s wife Naomi, and an
excellent sequence of clowning brilliance as DiCaprio attempts to get back into
his car while almost completely paralysed by the effects of a high number of
drugs.
Scorsese and Winter (Boardwalk Empire, The Sopranos) take an each-way
bet on the extent to which we will care about their fraudster and his eager
band of disciples, led by the loyal and enthusiastic Donnie (the always
reliable Jonah Hill). DiCaprio plays Belfort as some kind of financial market
revolutionary, when in fact, his collision of business misadventures is a good
deal less fascinating than the attention this handsomely over-produced film
suspects it deserves.
This review was commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.
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