Tortuously excessive take on excess

Rating: 4/10 (31 December 2013)

Did Marty Scorcese fall asleep in front of his movieola or lose his place editing the last two thirds of this film involving vapid characters in wild pursuit of cash with no depth to flesh out other than a team spirit equal in locker room adrenalin to halftime at Ohio State. After a couple of overlong Rocknesque team motivating speeches channeling Andrew Dice Clay along the way Lenny and Wolf of Wall St. hits a dead end with nowhere to go but from one drug fueled, sex crazed Bachannalian bash to the next while staying a step or two ahead of the feds.
Wolf starts fast with altruistic but ambitious Jason Belfort's ( Leonard DiCaprio) rise, stumble and meteoric burst by way of the penny stock trade to heading a major Wall St. firm. But less than halfway in Scorcese begins to audition acts for a comedy show slowing the pace in favor of DiCaprio and company giving us some stooge slapstick and dense straight man in scenes that neither build or deliver, just eat up endless minutes. The hedonistic office orgies, DiCaprio pep talks, the lust for coke, the reverence for Quaalude we get the first time, enough already.
DiCaprio also starts strong but is asked or was given free reign to emote beyond audience patience and he staggers to the finish with one over the top outburst after the next. A scene (one of many) where a nostalgic return to some revered drug goes awry and we are treated to Lenny crawling from the interior of a dwelling down the stairs across the lot and into his Ferrari. It is a scene emblematic of Scorcese's self indulgence and sluggish pace. Halving it (no less) may have salvaged it. At least it would not have wasted so much of your time.
The rest of the cast is relegated to throwaway inanity (save for a charismatic cameo by Matt McConaughy as a high powered trader) and team spirit in one noisy scene after the next that just goes in the same circle over and over and over eventuating in a dull payoff. Face it, his films have gotten longer and lousier. The Wolf of Wall St. has no bite it simply howls and howls and howls.