64 percent is a percentage that can either comfort or frighten any person who hears it mentioned. In the case of Leonardo DiCaprio, it's the percentage of time he's had more money than God on the big screen over the course of his career, which includes his latest gig re-teaming him with Martin Scorsese. With that much money comes an equal amount of power, which in turn can translate to a further equal amount of insanity.
The Independent has noted that DiCaprio, will have spent that percentage of his time playing a "crazy, rich guy" in the past 13 years of his career, once his role in The Devil In The White City has been completed. This means that only five films out of his slate since 2002 have had him playing persons that did not come from extraordinary financial means – which includes his present Oscar hopeful, The Revenant, as well as Shutter Island, Revolutionary Road, Body Of Lies, and The Departed.
If there's any lesson that can be learned from DiCaprio's filmography, it's that money most assuredly can't always buy happiness. Though, to be fair, Leo seems to have a harder time without an endless supply of money. While Jordan Belfort and Frank Abagnale Jr. may have eventually served time for their fraudulent money making practices in The Wolf Of Wall Street and Catch Me If You Can respectively, at least they didn't have to deal with being left in the woods to die, enhanced interrogation, or losing their spouse to a faulty abortion. While we're talking stats, there's one record at work that's even MORE impressive, and that's the fact that 7% of the time, Leonardo DiCaprio (or, his characters) actually found a happy ending in their stories.
Only one out of the 14 films he's made since 2002 seemed to have a happy ending, and when you realize that films is Inception, an argument can be made that his record of unhappiness is more in the 100% range. Of course, this depends on how you define the ending of Inception, as your interpretation of the film's finale will color the record-keeping process for such a streak. Either way, this makes us think: isn't it time for Leonardo DiCaprio to give himself a comedic break from all of the problems his fictional lives have given him?
Any comedy director would love to get their hands on him, and seeing as he's worked with Woody Allen before, he could always strike a balance between the drama he's used to and the comedy that would give him a well-earned break. And before you dear readers start to protest, yes The Wolf Of Wall Street is a dark comedy that generated a lot of laughs, but if we could have a film where we get more of the scene below and less of the personal downfall that Martin Scorsese's 2013 prestige pick had to offer, we'd be in good shape.
At any rate, we've missed seeing Leonardo DiCaprio at the box office, and we're looking forward to his return to the big screen with The Revenant on Christmas Day. Here's hoping he can find a good script from Guy Ritchie under his tree this year, just so we can see the man legitimately smile again.
