The Great Gatsby (**1/2)
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Full disclosure before I start this review, I have never much liked The Great Gatsby in any form. The previous movie versions are dreadful and the book, while thematically fantastic never leaps off the page given the character’s unlikability and voice over type narration. However, I tried to purge my mind of these feelings when I sat down for my screening. That wouldn’t be hard as the movie’s marketing was so good and the visuals so lush, I found myself anticipating the film far more than I thought I would be. And while Baz Luhrman’s glamorous remake of The Great Gatsby manages to make love to your eyes balls with it’s period costumes and dazzling production design it is unfortunately it’s the cinematic equivalent of blue balls, leaving you disappointed and unfulfilled.
There are so many places one could start with analyzing this film and assuming most of you know the tale since it’s required reading in high schools, I’m going to just jump into the review and skip over plot. But should you need a recap, Wikipedia can certainly assist you. What’s more interesting to focus on regarding the movie is how the text informs what you see on screen. Luhrman chooses to film this as sort of a living breathing book with the first person narration and voice over. It’s somewhat inspired, as it really allows for the audience to get invested quickly with Carraway, which is of paramount importance given how heavily this movie relies on Carraway specifically to be an audience vehicle. And it often works, really bringing to the forefront just how warped and vapid the world he’s inhabiting is. It also brought into sharper focus the gay subtext in an organic way, something I didn’t even realize was in the tale until I saw the film. It’s in those beats that you see what Gatsby could have been.
While Luhrman’s aesthetic really helps bring out the subtext, he also wiffs on some of the major points and much of the book’s problems get magnified on the big screen. It’s hard to translate the hollowness of the character’s in the novel to the screen without the movie feeling that way, and unluckily for Luhrman he can’t break free from that. Using opulence as a facade isn’t a bad idea but instead of being a simple reference it transforms this movie into shell with nothing inside to really grasp on to. Gatsby is full of characters that you just can’t root for or don’t like, even when they’re at their most charming. Two and a half hours is a long time to spend with those people, especially when you don’t allow for a deep exploration of the characters. Daisy especially is hamstrung by this, being all surface whims except for the confrontation scene in the hotel. There’s only one mention of her daughter until the end of the film and there’s no clear reason why Nick would try and set her up with Gatsby either. The source material, and coincidentally the script never gives you a chance to understand their motivations. Where is the underlying passion, the real soul of these characters? Gatsby spends more time focused on the glitz and glamour than in the machinations of the characters.
The technical merits of the film mirror the fraudulent ambition of the novel and the highs Baz Luhrman failed to achieve Those party scenes look so lavish in 3D but the editing style handicaps any kind of kinetic energy they might have. Moulin Rouge proved that crazy editing in a flashy place can feel great but here, and especially in 3D, you have to give the scene time to breathe. Also this haphazard seeming editing extends to the music. It’s an anachronistic choice to use modern music in a classic film and it would have worked but the sound mix is strange. The soundtrack, on its own, is wonderful, however as employed in this movie all but Lana Del Rey’s tracks are interjected in strange places and really take you out of the movie experience.
If there is a saving grace for the film, it’s in the tremendous performances, led by Leonardo DiCaprio. Leo, whose accent seemed like it was all over the place in those trailers, gives a wonderfully layered performance as Gatsby and is far and away the best thing about the film. Gatsby as a character is like a movie star with the psychological makeup of a 12 year old boy, and Leo really taps into the overwhelmingly misplaced sense of hope that Gatsby has about getting with Daisy. It’s a movie star performance through and through, meaning that you never are not aware Leo is on screen, but his mannerisms and hold of the language is marvelous. He is matched quite often in intensity by Joel Edgerton, who might be the true villain of the piece, but as he’s embodied is the only one who has any real idea of what movie he’s in. Carey Mulligan is great at capturing the essence of Daisy and at least making her a tolerable character. Elizabeth Debicki is a lot of fun as Jordan Baker and I’d have loved if the movie gave her a bit more to do. The only weak link in the cast is Magruire, and that’s not of his doing, as most of his story is sabotaged by the script not allowing him to take his character to the depths he needed to go.
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