Disclaimer: I work in finance. I'm not a stockbroker but our firm does offer stockbroking advice amongst other advice. And the events depicted in this movie are nothing like my work, even back in the 1990s which is the same time period as the setting of this movie. So it was a little hard to watch without any bias.
The Wolf of Wall Street tells a very extreme cautionary tale. It follows and is narrated by Jordan Belfort (Leonardo di Caprio) telling the story of how he came to be extremely rich by ripping off small mum and dad investors across America in the 1990s. Jordan was obsessed with money from a young age and when his first day as a stockbroker on Wall Street goes badly due to the 1987 stock market crash, he ends up applying for a job in a small local firm where his slick New York patter pulls the wool over the eyes of the simple clients of the firm. He is soon running his own firm which grows bigger and bigger through the sale of penny stocks (very low value stocks unlikely to succeed but for which a big commission is paid to the stockbroker). Soon it is a juggernaut making the owners and workers very rich and the clients very poor - it was calculated that Belfort's actions had taken $200,000,000 ($200 million) wealth from their clients. After many complaints the FBI eventually investigated and charged Belfort but I'll let you see the movie to see that part.
You might think this sounds extremely boring and dull if you are not into finance but director Martin Scorcese has been very canny in his approach whereby you only see the story from Jordan's point of view and the victims of his crimes are never seen, and the level of glamour and debauchery is set to 'very high'. The film has been accused of glorifying the lifestyle of these people but in my opinion any sane person watching it would have to be thinking what awful people these people are, how awful their lives are and how they deserved their comeuppance. Well I definitely did. As a person who has never used any drugs, this movie made me very glad of that and never ever want to try it if that's what it's really like. This film is extremely graphic in its depiction of drug use, sex and other general debauchery so don't go if you're going to be offended by that.
Leo puts in a commanding force as the obsessed force of nature - just check out the scene of him on Quaaludes (a 70s drug prescribed regularly to calm down housewives until it was found that drug users were abusing it and it was banned). Jonah Hill's role I was less impressed with but I guess his character as Jordan's closest offsider and sycophant Donnie was meant to be annoying. Aussie girl Margot Robbie bursts onto the world stage with her performance as Jordan's second wife - she is great in an again unlikeable role. The supporting cast are reasonable but this is Leo's show and his partnerings with Scorcese always seem to work some magic.
For me I felt the movie did not really show the depth of suffering that Belfort caused to many people, but it definitely was an entertaining look at how you can cause so much suffering to yourself under the guise of enjoying yourself. While the movie is really long, it has a lot of humourous moments so a little different to your usual serious Scorcese drama and it just keeps the momentum going. I'd give this a 3.5 out of 5 stars. Just don't walk out thinking that your local stockbroker's firm would be doing anything like this at lunchtime or after work, because it is so not like that! Trust me!
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