What the hell did I just watch?

Rating: 3/10 (11 January 2014)

If you don't like what you see within the first 15 minutes of this film, turn it off or leave the theater, because that's what you will see repeated over and over again for the next three hours. Okay, I get it. There are people who will do anything for money and who are morally bankrupt. This is Hollywood meets soft porn when soft porn has already been killed off by one-click-accessible porn. I'm not a puritan. This is just an objective fact. We live in the Age of Pornography. I, therefore, don't understand why Scorsese thinks this is the 'shocking' lens he should use to educate us on the evils of Wall Street greed and excess, unless he hopes to drag in the teenage boy audience, in which case, it simply amounts to pandering. In the end, I felt that it was Scorsese himself who was morally bankrupt. I think it is time for him to reassess his career. No great film was ever made so by pandering to base instincts. Great films stand on the strength of fundamental truths about human nature that leave the viewer leaving the theater uplifted, inspired, or awakened to elements of human nature in some way. This does not mean all movies have to have happy endings. The knowledge one takes from a good film can force one to reassess their values or ideas and this can be a difficult experience. But there is nothing fundamentally challenging about this film. Even if you try to think of it as a sort of documentary, it falls flat.
Now, what about the acting? There is no doubt that Leonardo DiCaprio is a great actor. However, I haven't been impressed by many of his recent efforts (i.e. Gatsby). In this film his character is one dimensional from beginning to end. There is no character development and no real opportunities for him to show his acting range. The same can be said for all the other actors, but given such an insipid script, what can you expect? After a couple of hours of watching Scorsese trying to educate us on the evils of wealth, I just wanted the film to end. He seemed to have an ax to grind in the tradition of other ax-grinders like Michael Moore and Oliver Stone. The last hour was simply an ordeal. Scenes seemed randomly cut and pasted together. Although I can't say there were not some interesting scenes within the film, they only served as sad reminders of Scorsese's wasted talent.
It makes no sense at all to me why this film is rated so highly. Maybe there are a number of people who were surprised to learn that excessive wealth can lead to bad behavior. All I learned is to be careful of giving too much credence to the ratings of any Scorsese film.