Greed, riches, drugs, naked women, sex…The Wolf Of Wall Street certainly is debauched, based on the memoirs of convicted stock market trader Jordan Belfort, a man who makes Gordon Gekko seem like a sweet office boy, the film certainly gives the financial industry a bad name- something that the friend I saw it with (a financial analyst) was non to pleased about.
In truth Jordan Belfort is a different animal all together. He starts off with a wife and no intention to drink or do drugs. How hard he falls indeed. After losing his job at L.F Rothschild he gets a job trading penny stocks, from there he starts up his own business, the Stratton Oakmont brokerage firm (which was the inspiration for the 2000 film Boiler Room) with the help of friend Donnie Azoff, (played by Johan Hill who famously did the role for $60,000; which was less than $10,000 per the 10 month work), they steal from poor people and then work their way up to stealing from rich people. They do more than their own body weight in drugs and they sleep with so many women it is hard to believe their penis didn’t fall off.
It is hard to go wrong with a Scorsese film and DiCaprio and Scorsese make quite a team. DiCaprio deserves an Oscar for his performance. There were times he was so into his character I didn’t even recognise DiCaprio anywhere. He was once so good he was the De Niro of our generation. Now he is just the DiCaprio of our generation: an actor so good he is on a level all by himself. Johan Hill also gives an Oscar-worthy performance. His comic timing is perfect. He can deliver any line in the world and make it funny. This film shows his true potential. Hill has always been under-rated.
It is not necessarily the movies fault but this is a terrible film for women. Few women get to keep their clothes on and the rest do full-blown, full-frontal nudity with shaved ‘private areas’. Ahem. Even the lead, Margot Robbie who plays DiCaprio’s second wife, who insisted she didn’t mind. Hmm. But despite all of this sex and the actual orgies the only real male nudity is a fake and flaccid fake penis and a from-the-back nude scene of DiCaprio (twice) and, yes, it was really him. Few women are more than window dressing, naked window dressing, and even one of the ‘original 20’ stockbrokers who is female, Kimmie Belzer, doesn’t even get a mention until the end of the movie. Another gets her head shaved for $10,000. An uncomfortable scene. All of the nudity is too much and embarrassing. It is supposed to be adult and decadent but is, actually, just sad and adolescent. I was depressed by the misogyny in the film. It’s 2014. Women deserve more than this.
The Wolf of Wall Street is an enjoyable movie (barring the nudity and I didn’t really get all the drug talk. I felt it was romanticised too much. Drugs actually aren’t cool kids), in fact it is more than enjoyable. It is nearly three hours long and it went by fast and was entertaining. However, Jordan Belfort is possibly one of the least likeable (real-life!) characters in movie history. He has absolutely no redeeming features. He is a complete bastard. Despite this, because he is played so brilliantly by DiCaprio he is also likable in a very weird way. You end up caring what happens to him but you resent yourself for it. These aren’t nice people and you will find yourself hoping Agent Patrick Denham nails them to the wall.
If you go and see The Wolf of Wall Street you will be entertained but you will also be left with a feeling of sexism, shallowness and emptiness.