The Great Gatsby (2013)

Often called the greatest American novel, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is the stuff of infamy. All through my life, I have heard names such as Gatsby, Daisy, Callaway and Buchanan mentioned like common knowledge and I’m sure most are familiar with the iconic symbol of mysterious green light. However, I must sheepishly admit that I have never read this amazing book before, nor have I seen any other film adaptation, the most famous being a 70s effort starring Robert Redford, whom I have heard described as “stiff.” Director Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby is anything but stiff. Campy maybe, over-the-top definitely, but never stiff.

I will refrain from describing the plot in any detail, because a great deal of it is spoiler-friendly. The film stars Tobey Maguire as Nick Callaway, a naïve young bond broker in “Roaring Twenties” era New York who becomes supremely interested in his mysterious millionaire neighbor, played by Leonardo DiCaprio. This man’s name is Gatsby and he has untold wealth to his name with which he throws enormous and very expensive parties every weekend. Gatsby befriends Callaway in the hopes of having a private meeting with Callaway’s cousin Daisy, who is married to a philandering individual named Buchanan. I will cease with any further explanation, suffice to say that lives entangle, mysteries unravel and tensions reach a boiling point. This is all very high drama and the film toys with the idea of presenting it as such. But you must remember that Luhrmann is the same individual who placed Romeo and Juliet in the middle of a modern gang war and had pop songs performed at the Moulin Rouge in 1900. He would be the last person to tell this story straight.

The Great Gatsby is a movie that defies anyone to look at it with anything but awe. The photography is nothing short of stunning and the art design elaborate. The direction is expectedly eccentric, with some moments giving an impression that characters will break into song without warning. The first half or so was obviously seen through musical eyes, a style that many viewers don’t realize is very difficult. Nothing during filming can go wrong, because everything that happens has been very precisely planned to sync with a pre-selected score. There is no singing here, but everything during the early scenes has been painstakingly choreographed to align with a wide variety of music that ranges from classical to rap. These scenes are certainly unique, presenting viewers with a dizzying spectacle of drunken partying that displays great showmanship, but forces the opening scenes to drag while we wait for something of any actual value to happen.

The second half is played completely straight-forward with an astonishing lack of razzle-dazzle, and the movie feels somewhat disjointed as a result of being pummeled with such fierce drama after such an extended period of light-headed flash. I don’t believe I really have a problem with this separation of motives. The first half of the film should hold a fast-paced view of its overblown marvels, while the second half deserves a chance to slow down and marvel at the characters. Leonardo DiCaprio has recently reached a peak in his acting abilities, having never impressed me before as much as he has with his last few performances. His Gatsby could have sold the movie on its own. I can’t imagine any other star accessing the same air of mystery, control and utter loneliness that DiCaprio possesses here. His co-stars don’t make quite the same impression, but Tobey Maguire is well-suited to play any character embodied by timidity, and Joel Edgerton is excellent as the two-faced Buchanan. The only character that gets lost in the shuffle is that of Daisy with Carey Mulligan, usually superb, giving what I believe is the best performance she could under the circumstances, which is unfortunately rather bland.

In a sense, this Gatsby movie is as elusive as its hero. It is a show of visual splendor that is incredible to witness, but which pushes the true heart of the story farther out of accessibility with each dazzling frame. The movie desperately tries to pull a dramatic punch in the last quarter and more or less succeeds, but it’s hard to measure the success of its emotional power when it’s wrapped up in so much overpowering theatricality. For what it’s worth, I enjoyed the movie. I would say that it is well worth watching, but I would also wonder how much better it might have been if it had hadn’t been quite so ambitious.

7/10