Movie Review: The Great Gatsby

Movie Review: The Great Gatsby

** stars out of ****

The Great Gatsby.  If you say those three words to a current high school or college student is taking an American literature course you can expect a variety of responses.  There are sure to be groans and even a few exclamations of "I love that book!" or "It's my favorite book!"  I would be one of the groaners.  There was just something about the novel that I couldn't connect with.  It is probably the fact that it is one of the shallowest books I have ever read.  There is no substance to the characters.  They are all style.  It makes it hard for you to care about what happens to them, because they are all basically terrible and if you aren't terrible bad things end up happening to you. 

This could be the reason why the novel has been called "unfilmable."  That certainly didn't stop people from trying.  This is the sixth time the book has been adapted for the big screen.  Most people recall the yawn worthy version from the '70's starring Robert Redford as Gatsby and Mia Farrow as Daisy.  This was widely panned and was about as exciting as watching paint dry.  Given the less than stellar reputation of the previous Gatsby adaptations, it came as a surprise when news broke that Baz Luhrmann was going to be directing another version in 3D no less.  

So... how did he do?  That is a complex question and I had complex feelings about the film after I had finished watching it.  I think Baz was the perfect director to bring Fitzgerald's jaded vision of the Roaring '20's to life.  Luhrmann tackles the visuals in the film with flair.  This should come as no surprise to moviegoers familiar his other films.  The movie excels in these wide angle, three dimensional scenes of excess.  It is also in these scenes where the 3D is used to its greatest effect.  Gatsby and Carraway's breakneck ride through NYC, Gatsby's lavish parties and cars full of people drinking and partying are visually spectacular and the 3D makes you feel like you are a part of it.  Much was made of Luhrmann using a modern soundtrack for the film and that added to the sense of heightened realism.  Some of the people that I saw the movie with thought it was distracting.

The visuals are top notch, but it's in the acting where the film begins to falter.  Leonardo DiCaprio plays Jay Gatsby, a millionaire who is not who he seems.  He begins a friendship with Tobey Maguire's, Nick Carraway, who lives next door.  Carraway quickly finds out that Gatsby wants more than just a new buddy.  Gatsby wants to use Carraway to get close to Carraway's cousin, Daisy Buchanan, a woman who he loved and lost and who now lives across the bay in a mansion, with her polo playing husband, Tom.  The performances are very flat and one dimensional.  They are all very surface-y.  It's almost like the people at the heart of the story are inconsequential.  It's like they are just cardboard cutouts to populate Luhrmann's amazing backgrounds.  

A part of me wonders if this was all part of Luhrmann's direction.  I'm assuming he studied the book very closely and Fitzgerald writes the characters not so much as fully fleshed out people, but just walking, talking ideologues.  I have nothing to really base that on, I just would rather that be the explanation, rather than, they were just acting badly.  I also didn't really understand the framing device of Nick being in a mental institution and writing the story down at the best of his shrink.  It was very odd and seemed wholly unnecessary.

Bottom Line:  Even though it is visually impressive, the flat performances in The Great Gatsby leave you wanting a lot more.  Will there be a seventh adaptation in thirty more years?