'The Wolf of Wall Street' never gets inside the head of its protagonist
'Wolf' stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill.
'The Wolf of Wall Street' stars Jonah Hill (l.) and Leonardo DiCaprio (r.).
Mary Cybulski/Paramount Pictures/AP
Watching Martin Scorsese鈥檚 鈥�The Wolf of Wall Street,鈥� starring聽Leonardo DiCaprio, I felt like I was trapped inside a dryer spin cycle of the聽director鈥檚 collected hits, especially 鈥�Goodfellas鈥� and 鈥�Casino.鈥� Do we聽really need another movie about a Wall Street shark living high and scraping聽bottom?聽
The film is almost three hours long and precious little聽of it feels new 鈥� not from Scorsese or from anybody else. DiCaprio鈥檚聽Jordan Belfort, upon whose memoir this film, written by Terence Winter,聽is loosely based, goes from two-bit broker on Long Island to major player,聽earning $49 million by the time he was twenty-six, mostly from bogus聽blue chip stock sales. Scads of that money went up his nose or into a聽daisy chain of orgiastic extravaganzas 鈥� many of which we are subjected聽to ad nauseam.
DiCaprio doesn鈥檛 seem terribly comfortable in the role despite all his聽strutting and posturing. Maybe it鈥檚 because the film never allows him to get inside聽Belfort鈥檚 psyche. It鈥檚 essentially a celebration of sharkdom. (The victims聽of Belfort鈥檚 chicanery are barely dealt with.) Jonah Hill plays Belfort鈥檚聽cohort and punching bag Donnie Azoff and the actor sports his whitest teeth聽ever. Too bad there isn鈥檛 enough here for him to sink his teeth into. Grade:聽C (Rated R for sequences of strong sexual content, graphic nudity, drug use and language throughout, and for some violence.)