Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street runs 180 minutes and never feels like it. Leonardo DiCaprio plays Jordan Belfort, a New York stockbroker who builds a fortune on fraud, and the film follows him from a 1987 job at L.F. Rothschild under Mark Hanna to the boiler rooms of Long Island and the offices of Stratton Oakmont. It is a crime drama that plays like comedy, and that is the point.
Trailer, via Paramount Pictures.
DiCaprio and the Fifth Scorsese Collaboration
The film is DiCaprio’s fifth with Scorsese, and it is the one where the director finally lets him off the leash. Belfort is not a tragic figure here. He is a salesman, and DiCaprio plays the pitch before he plays the man. Terence Winter’s script, based on Belfort’s 2007 memoir, keeps the mechanics of the con front and center: the hard sell, the pink sheet penny stocks, the pump and dump.
Jonah Hill’s Donnie Azoff is the perfect second. He is not smarter than Belfort, he is just as hungry, and their friendship is built entirely on appetite.
Matthew McConaughey Steals the First Act
Matthew McConaughey appears as Mark Hanna, Belfort’s mentor and former boss, and he is in the film for a handful of scenes. He is the best thing in it. Hanna explains what the job actually is, and McConaughey delivers it like a man who has already made his peace with the answer.
That scene sets the film’s terms. Everyone after Hanna is a variation on him, and none of them are as honest about it.
Margot Robbie and the Cost of the Lifestyle
Margot Robbie plays Naomi Lapaglia, the lingerie designer Belfort has an affair with and later marries in 1991. Robbie is not given much to do beyond being the thing Belfort wants, but she makes the want legible. When his first wife Teresa, played by Cristin Milioti, finds out, the divorce is quick and the marriage to Naomi is quicker.
The decadence that follows — the prostitutes, the drugs — is where the film risks becoming the thing it is describing. Scorsese mostly keeps it on the right side of that line.
Kyle Chandler and the FBI
Kyle Chandler plays FBI special agent Patrick Denham, and he is the film’s only real counterweight. He is not a hero. He is a man doing paperwork, and Chandler plays him with a flatness that makes him the most frightening person on screen. The SEC and the FBI close in, and the film does not pretend the law is glamorous.
The Forbes Exposé and the Name
The film’s title comes from a Forbes exposé that dubs Belfort “The Wolf of Wall Street,” calling him “a sort of twisted Robin Hood who takes from the rich and gives to himself and his merry band of brokers.” Belfort is enraged until the piece brings hundreds of young financiers to his door. It is the funniest and most cynical beat in the movie.
A 180-Minute Runtime That Earns It
Three hours is a long time for a film with no real redemption arc. The Wolf of Wall Street earns it by never asking you to like Belfort. It asks you to watch him work, and DiCaprio makes the work fascinating.
The supporting cast is deep: Rob Reiner as Belfort’s father Max, Jon Bernthal as Brad, Jon Favreau as Manny Riskin, Jean Dujardin as Jean Jacques Saurel, Joanna Lumley as Aunt Emma. The real Jordan Belfort shows up at the end as the Auckland Straight Line host. Spike Jonze cameos, uncredited, as the Long Island brokerage head who introduces Belfort to penny stocks.
The Numbers Behind the Film
- Runtime: 180 minutes
- Premiere: December 17, 2013, New York City
- US release: December 25, 2013
- Worldwide gross: $407 million
- Score: 8.0/10
Where It Ranks
- DiCaprio’s performance — the engine of the whole thing
- McConaughey’s Mark Hanna — the film’s thesis in one scene
- Chandler’s Denham — the quiet threat
- Robbie’s Naomi — underwritten but effective
- The Forbes scene — the film’s sharpest joke
The Wolf of Wall Street is not Scorsese’s best film, but it is his most energetic. It is a 180-minute argument that the con is the culture, and it makes that argument without flinching.
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