Movie review: The Great Gatsby
Finally, after all the hype, The Great Gatsby is here. But is it worth your time? Our peerless film expert Leigh Paatsch delivers his verdict.
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MOVIE REVIEW: The Great Gatsby is a novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Helluva piece of work. Nails everything that was right and wrong with 20th century America.
Just as relevant these days, too. You may wish to give it a read some time if you've never done so.
The Great Gatsby 3D is a film by Baz Luhrmann. He takes the collective substance of Fitzgerald's work, lines it up against a wall, and machine-guns it with all the style he can muster. You might wish to see it this weekend if you've got nothing better to do.
If you do not know the story of The Great Gatsby, you will not be at a marked disadvantage when taking in this lavish movie adaptation.
All that's really required is a passing knowledge of what passed for a high old time at the height of the jazz age.
It is the 1920s. That stock market crash and the subsequent Great Depression thing are still a long way away. New York City is the only place to be.
The joint is jumping. Everywhere you look, it's fast cars, new money, easy virtues and hard partying.
Right at the very eye of this perfect storm of good times and bad behaviour stands a man who appears to indulge in neither.
His name is Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio). As mysterious as he is notorious, Gatsby is a tycoon whose mansion hosts the wildest shindigs in town. Yet he is rarely seen mingling with his guests.
The man clearly has money to burn, but no-one in New York knows where he or that mega-fortune came from.
As the story unfolds, the magnificent enigma that is Jay Gatsby will crumble and disappear before us.
The narrator of the tale, wide-eyed young Wall Streeter Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire), will be present to chronicle each phase of the downfall.
The very glamorous, and very married, socialite Daisy Buchanan (Carey Mulligan) triggers the downward spiral of Gatsby.
The pair knew each other back before he made his cash, and before she accepted the lucrative proposal of a philandering establishment type named Tom (Joel Edgerton).
As director, Luhrmann is clearly more excited by the frenetic initial scene-setting of The Great Gatsby than the sobering morality tale he will be ultimately obliged to tell.
In the first half of the movie, the sheer Baz-ness on display is something to behold. The party sequences at the Gatsby abode are at once spectacular, tacky and utterly irresistible.
Some sections play out as if there has been multiple explosions inside a warehouse storing nothing but confetti bombs, neon lights and fireworks.
As one of the most hyped movies of our time, it must be said that The Great Gatsby does not quite live up to the hoopla that preceded its release.
However, the movie still works as an entertainment experience, almost in spite of the immense weight of expectation that has been heaped upon it.
The intuitive efforts of a well-chosen cast hold the key to the relative success of The Great Gatsby. No matter how grandiose or even cartoonish the circumstances become, the core trio of DiCaprio, Mulligan and Maguire keep proceedings grounded by applying a sincere emotional gravity to their work.
In a relatively thankless part, Edgerton is a revelation, contributing a performance that will surely open the door to better things to come in Hollywood.
Like all Baz Luhrmann films, you will not be bored for a millisecond by what transpires in his Gatsby.
Luhrmann does not have an auto-pilot setting. It is that oddly energised work ethic of his that marks him out as a truly individual, undeniably impacting filmmaker.
Needless to say, it also makes Luhrmann's output more of an acquired taste as his career continues.
You will be dazzled. You will be frazzled. You will be Bazzled.
Consider that as both a recommendation and a warning, and I guarantee that you and The Great Gatsby will get along just fine, old sport.
The Great Gatsby [M]
Director: Baz Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge)
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan, Tobey Maguire, Joel Edgerton
Rating: 3/5
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