Back in 2007 director Martin Scorsese captured an Oscar for “The Departed”, a film that many thought did not deserve Best Picture honors, which it also won. For me, Scorsese departed from first-class moviemaking with 2011’s “Hugo”, which surprisingly, got some awards consideration. The 71 year old is back with “The Wolf of Wall Street”, which is both wild and crazy as advertised, and for the most part, a complete train wreck.
Scorsese teams-up, once again, with Leonardo DiCaprio, who climbs mountains with his demanding performance as real-life stock broker/maniac Jordan Belfort, in this film adaptation of Belfort’s book about his true adventures working on Wall Street starting in 1987.
DiCaprio portrays Belfort as a larger-than-life character. Not only does he chew most of the scenery but he literally howls at the screen – during business meetings, addressing his employees, hooking-up with multiple women and getting high on every drug imaginable. DiCaprio also narrates the story, sometimes looking straight into the camera and talking to the audience. It’s a technique that’s showy and unnecessary.
Following a promising 45-minute set-up (minus an annoying Matthew McConaughey lunch scene), where we see Belfort’s determination to become a millionaire as he starts his own firm (along with partner Donnie, played by Jonah Hill), “The Wolf of Wall Street” doesn’t really have anywhere to go. Belfort becomes successful, and for the next 2 hours and 15 minutes (yes, the film is 3 hours long) we get non-stop scenes involving sex, alcohol, drugs and money. Apparently only a few last-minute edits kept the film from getting a NC-17 rating. Scorsese shouldn’t have stopped there. He easily could have chopped another hour out and still achieved his goal (though I’m still not sure what that was).
Do we learn anything about these characters? No. Do we learn anything substantial about the stock market or how these guys are cheating their clients? No. And most importantly, is any of this entertaining? Not really. And when the FBI finally comes down on Belfort, even that is dragged-out. Three different times I thought “Wolf” was going to end before it actually does (maybe it was just wishful thinking).
You can’t make up comments you hear from other people in a theater either during or after a movie. Normally I just listen and smile, but there are a few from my screening of “Wolf” that I have to share: “Is the script 400 pages?” said one woman about two hours in. And an elderly couple walking out shared this exchange: “That was a waste of three hours of my life!” “Well, I hated it!”. Clearly, this movie is not for mainstream moviegoers but I’ll be surprised if even Scorsese fans embrace it. Like a wolf chasing its tail, this film simply goes ’round and ’round in a pointless circle, telling the story of a con-man who is never interesting enough for us to care about.
On The Official LCJ Report Card, “The Wolf of Wall Street” gets a D+.