REVIEW: The Great Gatsby

6/10 - At least Pitbull wasn't on the soundtrack.

“In my younger and more vulnerable years
my father gave me some advice that I've been
turning over in my mind ever since.

"Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,"
he told me, "just remember that all the people
in this world haven't had the advantages
that you've had.”

I do have a great fondness for The Great Gatsby. I disliked the book when I was forced to read it in school but I've grown to really love it over the years. There's something beautiful, and poetic about the writing of F. Scott Fitzgerald.

With far less poetic subtly, Baz Luhrmann adapted the novel into a visual showcase that is The Great Gatsby in 3D. I'm not the biggest fan of his films. I find they peak in the first act and I lose interest by the end. A a trend that continues with The Great Gatsby.

Gatsby is a tale of romance and heartache in the roaring 20's. The narrator, Nick Carraway (Toby Maguire), recounts the summer he spent reuniting with his cousin Daisy (Carey Mulligan) and discovering just who the mysterious and legendary Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio) is.

The first half of this movie is really a spectacular. It opens on the legendary parties that Gatsby's reputation was built on. This is where Baz Luhrmann shines. The frantic pace works well, showing Nick getting swept away by the idealistic lifestyle of his upper class neighbors. But then the movie crawls to a stop. The Great Gatsby isn't a fast paced novel, it's a slow character story that shows how Nick grows disenchanted with the idols he once held in high regard. For the film that means an hour in there's a clunky halt to the once fast pacing, and suddenly it's a movie about long tea parties filled with subtext. Suddenly the lush environment becomes jarring, and distracting to the story. Suddenly the movie feels about 90 minutes too long.

The best reason to see this film, is without question for the fantastic cast. It's not often Leonardo DiCaprio plays a role where he's mostly happy. He embraces all of that Gatsby mystery, with a smile  that oozes charm and charisma, but with fear brewing beneath the facade. Carey Mulligan and Joel Edgerton as Daisy and Tom Buchanan are a terrific individually. They both bring dimension to their otherwise shallow characters. The missing element is the chemistry that pulls them together or pushes them apart, but that doesn't seem so necessary in this film as the relationships seem to take a back seat to the production design.

Baz Luhrmann's style is really appealing. He creates fantastic images that are better than the imagination. That scene from the trailer with Leonardo DiCaprio raising his glass with the fireworks behind him is stunning. It's a style that needs an operatic story, which Gatsby is far from. I'm not opposed to changing the original story, regardless of how revered it is. In this case even the most dramatic story changes wouldn't make the aesthetic and novel more compatible. Instead of being engaged in the characters, I found myself disappointed in how flat out boring the movie was. Perhaps that's a good reflection for the tragic elements of the story, but the audience should feel for the characters, not feel like they wasted their time.

"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."

IMDb - The Great Gatsby (7.3)
Wikipedia - The Great Gatsby
Rotten Tomatoes - The Great Gatsby (48%)
Amazon.ca - The Great Gatsby