A Hysterical Ride, But A Little More Depth Wouldn't Have Caused Any Harm!

Rating: 7/10 (10 January 2014)

Scorsese and DiCaprio's fifth venture together, this might be their most mainstream attempt till now. This black-hearted comedy, filled with colour, glamour, parties, money, corruption, drugs and sex, oozes of energy throughout it's three-hour long run-time. I admit it's a fun-filled ride throughout, and it never gets boring. But after a certain point, the narration, the jokes and the parties get monotonous. For such a long movie, the character-development and character-exploration is very poor, and there are so many characters and scenes which don't have any special relevance or importance in the whole story being told. I can't believe it's Terence Winter (from 'The Sopranos' and 'Boardwalk Empire') who wrote the script. The main distraction while watching a biopic like this is that the things shown on screen (fabulous office parties, amount of drugs each of the them take within a day, their ability to function properly in such high, the money lavishly spent around, and so many other things) always make you wonder how much of it is accurate and how much of it is complete exaggeration; you don't get a clear picture of the people and lifestyle of that place and era.
But whatever you say, with whatever is given to him, Leonardo audaciously gets into the skin of the character and is fascinating to watch. Moira MacDonald from Seattle Times aptly says, "DiCaprio is positively reptilian; he spits out his lines with a nasty glee. You're both horrified and enchanted by this creature - a monster in Armani". And Jonah Hill is almost as integral to the movie as DiCaprio himself; he's hilariously terrific from beginning till end.
I like that the movie doesn't shy away from being filthy. Plus Scorsese's depiction of a modern tragedy as an epic farce works to its advantage. Looks like Scorsese was in quite a fun mood or pretty high (like the movie's characters) while making this. Though it's a hysterical and thoroughly-entertaining journey, I still don't understand why Scorsese and DiCaprio jumped into making this completely exaggerated alleged life of a convicted swindler. Anyway, the feature is good not great. With a little more depth, the movie could have been timeless.