Firstly, this story’s been done before. Some of the predecessors of this genre include, ‘Wall Street’ (1987) with Charlie Sheen and Michael Douglas, ‘Boiler Room’ (2000) with Giovanni Ribisi and Vin Diesel. Both of which managed to illustrate the cutthroat, conspiring culture of wall street and its inhabitants without overdosing on sex and drugs and keeping a coherent and concise world for us to follow. Other similar films include ‘American Gangster’ (2007), ‘Scarface’ (1983), ‘The Way of The Gun’ (2000) and TV shows like ‘Breaking Bad’ all of which I highly recommend.
In the case of ‘Boiler Room’ (which is based on the same book) we actually get a feel of how smart Seth Davis was and connected with him in a very human way. We get to see his trials and difficulties and how he handles the struggles between pleasing his father and coming to terms with defrauding people out of their life savings. Here, we actually see the consequences of his actions and relate to them through highly fleshed out characters.
But OK, just because you’ve seen other movies like this before, doesn’t mean someone else has; it doesn’t mean it’s a bad film.
True, not many have heard of ‘Boiler Room’ and those who have seen ‘Wall Street’ can see how different a concept ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ is by comparison. But there is simply nothing revolutionary or exciting about this film:
There wasn’t much acting prowess. To say the acting was uninspired is an understatement. The majority of cast members seemed to take every nuance of subtlety with a nose full of coke. Jonah Hill (Donnie Azoff) playing another fast talking sidekick quickly became one of the more annoying characters in the film; there was so little chemistry between him and Leo D, it was hard to believe they were such close friends. The other characters were props at best, none of which ever getting enough screen time for us to love or hate them, which leads me to my next point:
No character development. We never truly get to know who Jordan Belfort is. I didn’t root for him nor did I hope for his demise. Hence, there wasn’t any tension throughout the film because I didn’t really care how incredibly wealthy he supposedly was and whether he would lose it all or not. Neither did I get the feeling he was very smart or charming. It is heavily implied that he is savvy and relentless, however throughout the film he always seemed more lucky than brilliant.
We didn’t get to see any natural progression of Jordan as a person; we just accept that he’s the person he is now; from a humble husband, to a shallow, screaming, drug addict who has somehow united a huge company of brainwashed thieves; none of whom we actually get to know.
Furthermore, there’s no contrast to Jordan’s world and ours. As such we never see the context of what’s happening. Everything they achieve is a non-issue because we don’t see the effect of those actions. Defrauding millions of dollars means very little to an audience who never see the victims, nor do their actions have any real consequences when all we see is a montage of arrests.
There was little to no memorable dialogue. My favourite parts of the film were when they were actually talking which probably amounted to approximately 2 minutes. The exchange between Leo D and Mathew McConaughey was so good I wish there was more; and again, when Jordan attempts to bribe the Feds I really enjoyed that too, until he threw his balls in their mouth and started screaming again.
It was predictable. I spent the whole time waiting for things to happen. I waited for him to cheat on his wife, I waited for him to do a ton of drugs, buy ridiculously flashy toys, get clumsy and then get caught.
But wait, you say, the point of ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’, is a savage depiction of life in the fast lane, a way to bring the audience closer to what life as a true wolf really is. It’s meant to be distant and absurd, almost satirical.
Sure, I can live with that sentiment, but 3 hours of it constantly mushed into your face? That I can’t really stomach. The first few moments of the film, where Jordan is blowing coke down a hooker’s butthole was enough to set the scene and tone of the film. From there, there really is no need to be any more explicit about the copious amounts of sexual depravity he goes through, we get it, any more time used to cement that idea is wasted.
It was the same with the topic of drugs; a good portion of the film was spent describing a specific favorite of his and then another portion of him climbing into a car.
Overall, I felt this movie was substantially hyped up by the over sexualized imagery and the mentality that Scorsese and Leo D can’t possibly get it wrong once in a while. I found the whole thing distasteful and a massive waste of time. It may very well have been the intention to tire the audience out the same way Jordan’s life eventually burns out. In that regard, ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ was successful in feeding us a slice of mayhem, leaving those who loved it feeling vibrant as a rainbow Quaalude with a shot of rum and those who hated it exhausted. However you feel about this, I feel it results in a sacrificed story for a more sensory experience and absolutely no worthwhile content to speak of.
תגובות