For a film that is so long that one expects hobbits to start appearing, The Wolf Of Wall Street is so packed with character, incident and rich film-making that its three hours are a constant joy to watch. That it is also based on real life events makes it equally absorbing and disturbing. Here, Scorsese and his team feel off the leash, on the one hand creating a freewheeling sense of spiralling, out-of-control excess that at once appals and creates guilty envy, but which also reveals such intelligence and control in direction (an energised Scorsese), editing (the peerless Thelma Schoonmaker), scripting (exquisite wit and range from Terence Winter) and performance. Leonardo DiCaprio gives an utterly dynamic, magnetic and finely-tuned performance which will be remembered as one of his very best, even managing to generate some touchingly human moments in an utterly repellent character, Jonah Hill continues to grow as a fine character actor as his buddy and side-kick, and in a film that reflects a world that treated and represented women so appallingly, a revelation here is ex-Neighbours actress Margot Robbie who is quite magnificent as morally bankrupt broker Belfort's second wife, who subtly develops into the moral and human centre of the movie. These are extraordinary times reflected in an extraordinary film, which as well as showing exemplary film-making and acting is also riotously entertaining and outrageously funny.
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