brilliantly acted and directed; not for sensitive viewers

Rating: 7/10 (31 January 2014)

This is a superb film, but it definitely deserves it's 18 rating; it is gratuitous, the language is very "colourful" and there is a lot of nudity and drug use-a-plenty. Usually I'd not particularly go for a film like that but it is a biopic and based on the book by Jordan Belfort (played by DiCaprio). It's a man gets super-rich by nefarious means and goes a bit crazy kind of film; women, drugs, big boy-toys and all the trappings of the nouveaux riche, and then his downfall. It's a sort of morality tale, his lifestyle is meant to be seen as depraved and excessive (in a bad way) not admirable and the Director (Scorsese) and the writers make that clear as Belfort (and the other men too) unravels.
DiCaprio and Hill were superb; DiCaprio was horribly good and Hill has in one film jumped his way up from a comedian to a serious character actor. It has, however, a good lot of humour as well as stressful points and also scenes in which you are incredulous. For all the nudity and sexual content, it isn't titillating just bawdy and sordid. It still astounds me that men behave in that way - Boiler Room's extended cut had a few similar scenes but not so bad as this. Boiler Room is actually a good comparison for plot although - as I said - Wolf of Wall Street is way more over the top. For all the scenes where you think "oh goodness I shouldn't be watching this," there are plenty where the actors show their grit and the Direction is so superb. It is the sort of film where you almost forget you are watching a film, you are so engrossed and just "there" absorbed in the action. I did think it was a bit too long in terms of duration, some of the scenes went on a bit, and certainly the debauchery was too much. Yes it was a (watered down, apparently!) telling of a life story but the viewer doesn't need everything spelled out. Jordan Belfort was played as a horrible man who got his just desserts but that didn't detract from the humour and superior production of this film. I would be very careful who I recommended it to given it's content, certainly NOT those of delicate dispositions or under eighteens. Brilliant film though.