In the very last scene of The Wolf of Wall Street, the real Jordan Belfort shows up in a cameo, introducing his cinematic counterpart to a captivated audience of would-be millionaires in Auckland, eager to hear his sage sales advice. This might count as a spoiler, but it really isn't. The story is all too familiar: a greedy broker makes millions defrauding thousands of people on Wall Street, and ends up with little more than a slap on the wrist and a lateral career move. This is the entire point of The Wolf of Wall Street: it depicts a world so inherently amoral and unjust that its criminal subject can show up in a cameo role. And we’re all part of it.
Leonardo DiCaprio plays Jordan Belfort in the movie. It begins with him at 22, getting his first job at Wall Street and falling in one with its profane culture. After the brokerage he works for folds, he goes into penny stocks and works his way back up. He soon starts his own firm, Stratton Oakmont, and proceeds to make a fortune in both legal and illegal means. He and his partners live it up, indulging in every vice one can imagine. But Belfort's life of conspicuous excess brings him plenty of trouble as well, and some unwanted attention from the FBI.
It is likely no accident that the treatment of the movie bears some resemblance to another of Scorsese's films, Goodfellas. The stylistic reference to his own film finds Scorsese equating the illicit acts in this movie to the murders and drug dealing that took place in the former. It's an interesting juxtaposition; both worlds defined by amorality and excess, but only one largely viewed as legitimate. The film runs through three hours of absolutely despicable behavior, the tailored suits and clean haircuts a flimsy cover for the worst of what humanity has to offer.
And it's terribly entertaining. The movie finds plenty of humor in the absurdity of the world being portrayed. It makes it all seem ridiculous, the unregulated pursuit of money only resulting in surreal behavior that seems so far out of the scope of rational human experience. As insidious and predatory all this is made out to be, the film makes these characters out to be fools in the end, worthy as much of ridicule as they are of derision.
It's a pretty mean trick that gives the film its punch. There is plenty of outrage in the film, but it does not define it. There's more to it than that. There's a lovely sense of existentialism lingering in the fringes, a strange empathy for all these characters existing within such an absurd system. Excellent performances from the terrific cast brings this sophistication to fore. Leonardo DiCaprio emerges as a weirdly pathetic figure, even as he flaunts his bad behavior. Jonas Hill seems as much lost as he is downright reprehensible.
More than once in The Wolf of Wall Street, Jordan Belfort starts to explain some of the arcane workings of his scams, but then he stops. And he talks right into the camera, telling us that we don't really care about all that. And he's right. This movie isn't really about Wall Street, or the crimes that took place there. It isn't even really about Jordan Belfort. In the end, it's about all of us, the people living within a system where Jordan Belfort can flourish, the otherwise normal folk who will pay to learn from him. It’s the audience that is repulsed by his behavior yet envious of the luxury and wealth he accumulates. The sense that we're all somehow in this together is what makes the movie so resonant, giving it punch beyond all the profanity on screen. We all want to be rich, the movie opines. In that way, we are all Jordan Belfort, and that’s a terrifying truth.
My Rating:
—
Image used in home stream taken from official Multivision Pictures Philippines Facebook page.
