Gatsby - The Motion Picture Event of A Century

The time is finally here, the film I have been waiting for for over two years is finally here. Baz Luhrmann's adaptation of F Scott Fitzgerald's epic 20th century is finally in theaters. The novel is one of my favorites, and is a powerful tale of love, loss, and really great parties. The film uses Baz Luhrmann's signature visual style, and is a continuation of the style used in Moulin Rouge with pans, quick cuts, and swoops, whilst also containing racking shots, to show the romantic progression of the story . I suppose I don't have to explain that i was pretty excited about this movie, given that i wrote two posts on the trailers, and I must say that the film doesn't disappoint, and is a classic film that feels relevant and current.

The film has an amazing all star cast, and improves on the 1974 version on the cast alone. Leonardo Dicaprio stars as the titular Gatsby, and manages to show a man who is slick and smooth, yet who hides a violent dark exterior. Dicaprio manages to improve on Redford's performance, as he is more rugged and broken than Redford was, and manages to carry with us our hopes and dreams, and he makes the audience fall as head over heels in love with him, and we fall as hard as Nick does, when we are ultimately betrayed, and when our trust and faith in him falls due to his actions.

Carey Mulligan stars as Daisy Bucchannan, a rich spoilt fragile woman, who risks to be pushed over the edge by the chaos that ensues. Carey Mulligan manages to capture the fragility and the trauma of a woman who struggles between her love for two men, and with the dangerous destructive relationship that she has with an old lover, a relationship based on the past, a past that will never be reclaimed, and a relationship that is slowly dying and which becomes more and more toxic as we progress through the story. Mulligan manages to perform better than Mia Farrow, who also deftly portrayed the fragility, but who's performance at times veered into shrill, and lost some of the weight of the character.

Joel Edgerton stars as Tom Bucchannan, and despite being deft in his performance, he offers little is the way of imagination, or new insight into the character. Toby Maguire portrays Nick Carraway, and also provides little in the way of insight, which is perhaps appropriate, given that nick is intended to be a lens, always seeing, yet providing little in the way of opinion or unbiased critique. The film allows us to agree with nick, and fall for Gatsby as hard as he does, thus continuing the narrative of the book.

The real star of this film is Elizabeth Debecki as Jordan Baker, a newcomer who manages to maintain the essence of the original character, whilst taking it in a different direction, I was a huge fan of Lois Chiles shrewd and self aware performance in the 1974 movie. In this version Debecki portrays Baker as more of an ingenue, a wide eyed young woman, who observes what goes on around her, and the film dispenses with the  subplot involving a romantic relationship between Nick and Jordan and a plot involving golf and cheating. Debecki is a newcomer having just graduated, and i can see an oscar coming her way for this deft and studied performance.

The film is a visual treat, and shows us the hollowness of this world which Fitzgerald creates. If the party in the original film was a little mishandled and held at arms length by the filmmakers, here the party is literally the best party one could imagine, the party is huge and gratuitous, and has great music. The music in the film is great, with a Jay Z produced soundtrack, which combines modern Hip Hop and pop music with old school 1920's Jazz music. The costumes are also spectacular, and are a blend of 1920's styles, with a more modern touch, such as the slimmer tailored pant.

Now we come to the negatives, the film contains a subplot involving Nick narrating his story from a sanatorium, which could have been dispensed with, and the film suffers from poor pacing towards the third part of this four part movie structure, when the story seems to be going nowhere, however these issues are resolved in the final act when the film soars, and then finally plummets towards its assured and destructive conclusion.

Overall however this is an assured visually stunning picture, with a great soundtrack and wonderful performances from it's leads, and i dare anyone who watches it not to fall just as head over heels in love with it as I did. Rating: B+

Nick Carraway: Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter - tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther... And one fine morning - So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.