Directed by: Baz Luhrmann
Rating: ★★★½
I’m going to be completely honest and say that I really wasn’t expecting much from Luhrmann’s adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Personally, I sometimes find his directorial style difficult to digest, especially in Moulin Rouge, a movie that I find grossly overrated. Also, as a fan of the book, I didn’t think that Luhrmann would be able to successfully pull off the dynamic between the characters, and capture the enigmatic essence of the central protagonist.
So after watching The Great Gatsby, I can concede that I was both right and wrong. I was right in my estimation of Luhrmann’s lurid style, and wrong about how he would portray his personalities. In fact, DiCaprio’s interpretation of Gatsby, as well as the evolving love story and climatic ending, were incredibly well done, and made the entire movie extremely captivating.
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| Gatsby just loves throwing parties! |
Don’t get me wrong: the first half an hour was dreadful; and I mean terrible. The quick cuts, rushed exposition and glittery glamour all collide into one another and cause a wreck of an opening: something that Maguire’s limp performance does nothing at all to resuscitate. The over the top graphical indulgence feels like the equivalent of a visual smack in the face, and combined with the strangely mashed-up 20s jazz meets contemporary hip-hop soundtrack- something I felt didn’t work well at all in context- the entire beginning feels like a nostalgic nightmare.
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| The introduction of Gatsby is laugh out loud awful |
Then, as soon as DiCaprio makes his first proper appearance, and the plot about Gatsby and Daisy begins, the film settles down and blossoms into a heartfelt romantic tragedy.
The story, about an elusive millionaire playboy called Gatsby (DiCaprio) employing the services of his neighbour Nick Carraway (Maguire) in reuniting him with his lost love Daisy (Mulligan,) is not only adapted very well from the book but is also improved upon. We get much more Gatsby and much less Nick, we also get to see the love Gatsby has for Daisy and how much she means to him in an incredibly potent and profound way.
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| Perhaps Gatsby should stop living in the past... |
Helped by DiCaprio’s superb performance, we truly feel for Gatsby, and this makes the ending- which is wonderfully and hauntingly directed- even more powerful.
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| Gatsby will do anything to reunite with Daisy... |
When deciding on casting, it must have taken the casting director several seconds to decide that Tobey Maguire would be the right choice to play one of literature’s blandest characters. His demonstration of ‘four face acting’ (smiling, shocked, sad and angry) made me question just how much I reallylove the Spider-Man movies he is most famous for, but luckily for him, the fact that Nick is meant to be completely lifeless and plain gives some justification for his bad performance.
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| Tobey Maguire gives a terrible 'four face' performance |
Mulligan as Daisy, Debicki as Jordan, Fisher as Myrtle and Edgerton as Tom all give solid support, it’s just a shame that Jordan and Myrtle’s characters get side-lined and aren’t given room to really develop. This is, after all, Gatsby’s DiCaprio’s show, and we can’t forget who the headliner is. DiCaprio is given as much screen time as possible, but why shouldn’t he? He is the life and soul of the movie, and his interpretation of Gatsby takes the movie places where, if the casting was different, it may not have been able to go.
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| Jordan's part is dramatic cut down, which is a shame as Debicki plays her part very well |
Ignoring the awful opening, the militant politically correct ‘positive’ racism (an example of which is by far the worst part of the movie) and the spectacularly stupid first party, The Great Gatsby is great because it spends time making us love Gatsby as much as Nick does. We get to see some excellently intimate interchanges between the characters that allow us to really feel the intensity and honesty of the relationships. The love Gatsby feels for Daisy comes across as genuine, and without this, the amazingly impacting ending would have completely fallen flat. The last third of the film is really very well done, and I particularly loved the touching and poignant finale.
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| Secret love, pining heart... |
I’m always happy to be proven wrong when it comes to my negative expectations of movies. I genuinely don’t enjoy watching terrible film after terrible film, so I was very happy to see a movie that not only looks good, but is emotional and, on the whole, enjoyable.
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| Nick admires and loves Gatsby, as we all do. |
Gatsby is called great for a reason, and I’m happy to say that The Great Gatsby is a great movie.
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