Flat

Rating: 6/10 (28 December 2014)

This film kept lurking in my head for a while, but not because I was taken by it. I just kept wondering why I got so bored. Even though DiCaprio performs very well (as usual) and there were nicely put comic notes, it just didn't capture me very much. Only the final parts were slightly more engaging. I now know why; the entire story as well as pretty much every character stayed flat and superficial. Nothing new, nothing interesting, nothing insightful, nothing unexpected, no shock, cringe or excitement. However, the part when Jordan (temporarily) changes his ways has an element of surprise; that is because you get no clue on how he did that (or even why, other than his realisation that he's been found out), what process that was and what part anyone around him played in it. Wasn't interesting maybe because of the lack of drugs and hookers?
It does depict empty sales pretty well, you could say. Sales that is only about making people give you their money without exchanging anything valuable for them, with no consideration for the long term relationship or consequences. Some still think that is what good sales is about; it is not. That is just criminal. You might argue that someone like Jordan Belfort is indeed that flat and superficial, but I have a hard time believing that. I suspect as a psychopath, that is just the picture Belfort prefers to sell. There was one character slightly more intriguing, in the beginning, and that was Mark Hanna, probably because he was played so well by Matthew McCounaghy.