Leonardo's another gem of an act in a Scorsese film made on a man whose life had nothing to talk about other than money, drugs and sex.

Rating: 7/10 (31 January 2014)

To straight away give you the gist; here is another gem of a performance by Leonardo DiCaprio in the maestro Martin Scorsese's film which unarguably can be included among the best acts of the talented actor's illustrious career. In fact in the last decade, Leonardo remains one of those few big names who have constantly delivered some great performances in his well chosen films, reaching new heights of the art in an exceptional manner. So to be precise, THE WOLF OF WALL STREET is undoubtedly a Leonardo DiCaprio movie right from its first frame to the last with surely an Oscar-worthy performance as they say.
Based on the real-life stock broker Jordan Belfort's own memoirs, the film talks about a particular time-period of his life, when he got insanely rich in just few years through some clever stock scams and then had so much money around him, that he started calling them "Fun Coupons". Having nothing else to do, he just started spending that money lavishly on booze, heavy drugs, big parties, hookers & expensive purchases like a giant yacht, a helicopter, a huge mansion and much more with a group of his chosen friends. Hence in short, this can easily be called an unpleasant yet engaging black comedy about a man who was completely dishonorable yet had a magnetic personality to know, due to his own guts and spirit of taking big risks.
Director Martin Scorsese tries to being in a fresh novelty in his treatment which works superbly but is also pretty bold or even obscene in its few scenes. And that is why the Indian version of the release gets few clear cuts made in between its sexual scenes quite brutally. At around 174 minutes, the film is a bit over length and becomes monotonous too since it doesn't have anything new to say after a while. But still you don't lose the interest mainly due to the splendid act of Leonardo and some fabulous supporting acts too like Matthew McConaughey as Belfort's mentor in the opening scene, Jonah Hill playing his first associate as Donny Azoff, Kyle Chandler as the FBI agent and Margot Robbie playing Belfort's stunning trophy wife providing all the sensual moments in the film as required.
The eye-catching camera-work gets a great support from the intelligently designed background score & a crisp editing which makes the narration going without any major drop. And that is why Scorsese's latest venture largely comes out as a winner due to its absorbing execution and entertaining performances throughout its three hours.
But despite all the merits mentioned above, thinking about the film as a whole, I was really confused as I couldn't really see anything great or worth telling in the life of this immoral person called Jordan Belfort. In other words, as the end credits started rolling, I was finding it hard to find any reason that why on earth they decided to make a film in such a style on this Belfort, who had nothing in his mind all his life except money, drugs and sex like a careless, disgraceful creature.
Perhaps Scorsese just wanted to give his viewers 'a high' without taking any pills or powder with just his powerful screen presentation only. So (keeping that in mind) do watch THE WOLF OF WALL STREET, for Leonardo's flawless performance alone but please don't search for any basic purpose or human factor in the film, as there always is in such major biographical ventures.