The Wolf of Wall Street – Review

Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction.  Well, that’s how the saying goes at least.  The Wolf of Wall Street serves as the fifth pairing between director Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio.  Also starring Jonah Hill, Matthew McConaughey, and Margot Robbie, the film centers on DiCaprio’s character, Jordan Belfort, who is an up and coming stock broker.

He begins his venture with a certain amount of naivete as a junior employee at a major firm.  Timing was not kind and shortly after beginning work the stock market crash of 1987 ensues, his firm goes bankrupt and he is among the thousands of brokers looking for a job.

This job hunt eventually leads him to respond to a help wanted advertizement at a much less glamorous company that is filled with B-minus type characters who will never amount to anything.  This company offers humongous margins but only sells penny stocks.  All of the regular employees are so incompetent that they are struggling to get by, but you can see the lightbulbs going off in Jordan Belfort’s head  during his first visit to the company.

A natural born salesman, he is quickly able to close numerous deals that serve only to line his own wallet.  With a new understanding of how to make it rich, he sets out on his own, hires some of his friends, and hits the phones.  Huge amounts of money begins to roll in and escalating decadence ensues.

The resulting film is well executed and polished and designed to shock, but it doesn’t have any WOW-factor.  Drugs, sex, fraud, thievery exist in copious amounts, but is that really surprising to anyone?  Granted, there are surely lots of respectable people with high morals who work on wall street, but surely they could make thousands of other films focused on the thousands of other wall street brokers who live a life of debauchery.

So yes, there are some entertaining moments in the film and it leaves you with the feeling that this is as good as this type of film could get, but it’s just not enough.  Being based on a true story, you know from the beginning that there’s only one way it can end and the viewing experience is like watching a train continue to build up speed before the concluding wreck.