An electrifying central performance drives along a Scorsese masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (3 March 2014)

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning
Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a young man determined to get ahead and live the high life come what may, and so he travels to Wall Street, the financial epicenter of the world in the 1980's to make his mark. Treated like an underdog on his first day, he's lucky to have financier extrordinarie Mark Hanna (Matthew McConaughey) spot his potential and take him under his wing, teaching him the key to success lies not in mere stocks and shares, but in selling investor's worthless or inaccurate pieces of paper that you've convinced them will net them loads. After losing his job in the Black Monday crash of 1987, he takes Hanna's advice and hooks up with former toy store worker and neighbour Donnie (Jonah Hill) and, after assembling a seemingly no hope bunch of co conspirators, they set up their own company and before long have reached the top and engage in a life of none stop debauchery, decadence and excessiveness beyond most people's wildest dreams, until FBI Agent Patrick Denham (Kyle Chandler) and his team start to dig in to whether Belfort's practices are legal.
Eager as he is to convey yet another tale of a morally skewered individual and their inherent rise and fall, Martin Scorsese has nevertheless taken rather a gamble in these financially destructive times by bringing this real life tale of Jordan Belfort, the wheeler and dealer to end all wheeler and dealers, to the big screen. In an age where there are those struggling even to keep a roof over their heads, seeing someone who indulged in such mind blowing greed and extravagance may be a tough pill for many to swallow. But it's testament to his style and delivery that, while it can never really be said we come to like Belfort, something about his self belief and arrogant determination and indeed the have-everything world he creates makes him such an immorally appealing fellow that we never get to hate him either. If the richest people in the world really are just one per cent, and this is how they live, then it really isn't much of a mystery how everything is so unevenly divided.
Now quite rightly regarded as one of the finest actors of our generation, in a career with many high points, this is the role in which DiCaprio will surely leave his highest cultural mark in the world of cinema. He injects a manic intensity and ferociousness to Belfort that at times is simply magnetic, mesmerizing as he thunders like a lion across the screen, as a man whose wild arrogance, immorality and desperate zest for life literally charge him like a battery. It's the finest role of his I've ever seen, and it's a shame it seems he's missed out on his Oscar for it, all I can say is whoever beat him must still be living their part now. But special mention must also be given to co star Hill, who I've only known for making well known comedies, but he seems to have taken DiCaprio's lead and attempted to be as full on and direct as him, to very nearly as great effect. As a double act, they set the screen on fire in a way you couldn't imagine. Also one not to forget is McConaughey, in what can only be about a ten minute role, who fills that brief time marvelously, espousing on to DiCaprio the self believing mantra that will transform him in to a God like figure in the boardroom, with a cult like audience in front of him.
Scorsese seems wrapped up in the style of Goodfellas, with DiCaprio doing voice over for most of the film and sounding almost exactly like Ray Liotta from that film, and acting much like him too, both playing real life men who refused to be constrained by a life of mundanity and were willing to use illegal, immoral means to rise above it, climbing high but falling that much harder due to their own lack of self control and addiction to risk. He occasionally veers away and talking directly to the camera just for that extra dramatic impact.
With the Black Monday crash of '87 being such a big event at the start of the film, it's a wonder no reference is made to Michael Douglas in Wall Street since that film came out that year. TWOWS is just a superb effort in it's own right, driven along by DiCaprio's best ever performance and a startling view of how the other half live that will blow your mind. *****