All indicators point towards The Wolf of Wall Street being an excellent film. It is the fifth collaboration between Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DeCaprio. It is based on the real story of the colourful life of Jordan Belfort. It was nominated for multiple Academy Awards. After being impressed by Margin Call, I looked forward to watching another good film depicting the finance industry. Unfortunately, it turned out to be something of a dud.

One major reason why it leaves a bad taste in the mouth is that it drags on for far too long. Clocking in at a solid three hours, it wears out its welcome long before the credits start rolling. I wouldn’t have minded the excessive length if the film had actually been good. But entertaining as the hijinks of the characters are at first, that isn’t enough to sustain an epic of this length. This is exacerbated by a flaw that I find to be similar to that of Blue Jasmine. Scorsese doesn’t appear to have anything insightful to say about Belfort’s life and can’t seem to make up his mind about whether to glorify Belfort or condemn him.

The first hour at least of the film is highly entertaining and great fun. DiCaprio plays the consummate salesman with fantastic aplomb. I enjoyed Matthew McConnaughey’s cameo as Belfort’s mentor. And it’s hard not to be caught up by the excitement of Stratton Oakmont’s initial successes or impressed by the riches they manage to amass and the ridiculous ways they find to spend it. Even the way DiCaprio breaks the fourth wall to speak to the audience is amusing.

But gradually you realize that the film keeps showing you scenes of stockbrokers getting high, partying and cavorting about the office because it doesn’t have anything else to show you. This is really all there is to it. As one reviewer noted, the characters are all fundamentally shallow, uninteresting people and just because they are high on drugs doesn’t make them magically more interesting. It’s like you expected to watch a Martin Scorsese drama and got a Seth Rogen comedy instead.

The film even manages to work in some insults directed towards the audience. At a couple of points, Belfort starts to explain to the camera how the scam works but then gives up, saying that the audience wouldn’t be interested in the fine details anyway. This just drives home how anti-cerebral this film. Don’t think too much, just trust us that it works and come along for the ride, he says, as if the audience were suckers just like the victims of the scams.

Despite having its moments, overall this film is a thorough waste of time. Watching it, I felt even more impressed by how Margin Call could present a variety of different viewpoints about the financial industry and treat its subject matter in a suitably sophisticated and intelligent manner in less than two hours. The Wolf of Wall Street is by contrast as vacuous and shallow as the people it is about.