The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby is Baz Luhrmann's attempt at adapting one of the greatest American novels for the silver screen. There's a lot in it that worked and equally didn't, so let's go through it one by one.

First of all, this is a heavily stylized magnum opus. It's meant to look like we are watching a fictional, almost fantasy-like tale from a storybook. The visual aesthetics, colours and the overall production design including the mansions, vehicles, costumes etc. are exuberant! You could easily say they spared no expense to make it all look luxurious and posh! Contemporary soundtrack choices are part of that style, therefore it works at places but others, not really. Lana Del Ray's Young and Beautiful is the highlight! Some of the visual effects helped the cinematography to move the scenery from one to another swiftly! By far the worst technical aspect at display here is the poor editing - there are far too many unnecessary cuts that reduces the power of most of the scenes.

From the beginning, we are led into the plot through Nick Carraway's (Tobey Maguire) narration. He is the one third-party middle man who is linked in some way, shape or form to all the principal characters. To be honest, the narration doesn't really add much value to the storytelling. There are few comments that did, but honestly Nick Carraway could have just been a supporting character who was involved in the story without any additional narration needed. There's an undercurrent mystery revolving one Mr. Gatsby. He throws massive parties weekly. No one has really seen him before. And you get various backstories about him and how he got his riches. This remains a mystery from start to finish as we slowly uncover who this millionaire is, with the best part about it is - he's played by Leonardo DiCaprio.

Leo fits the role like no other! He is the strongest asset of the feature, easily! His performance together with Joel Edgerton's as Tom Buchanan are the film's best! Gatsby is incredibly interested with Nick. He's constantly worried about giving a good impression and validating his perfect backstory over and over again to him, to a point where we can smell these are somewhat lies. As soon as we learn the ulterior motive that Jay Gatsby is here to meet his long-lost lover Daisy (Carey Mulligan); cousin to Nick but most importantly, wife to antagonist Tom Buchanan, the plot opens up. 4PM tea meeting with Gatsby hesitating to meet Daisy is adorable!

The heavy stylization that we speak of earlier can sometimes supersede the emotional impact of the actual content. But you'll notice it almost disappears after the tea meeting as the storytelling takes the front seat, which is good but inconsistent as a movie whole. House tour, scrapbook showcase and lovemaking below the tree are super romantic that it feels awkward to have Nick around as the third wheel. As the runtime goes, you'll truly understand and feel how much Gatsby loves Daisy. He became opulent for her and tragically loses all of it because of her too. We can't help but feel Daisy doesn't deserve any of this. We understand that she's trapped within her husband's confines and the affluence she's born into, but we don't feel it. What we gather from the picture we watch is she loves wealth and just like Gatsby mentioned, she said no to him at first because he's not rich. This only makes her look cheap and it seems like she's attracted to the money more than the person himself. If the film had reduced the time spent on Nick and used that to dive into Daisy's character instead, it would have been much easier for us to justify the romance and that she deserves Gatsby at the least. But then again, there's the other side of the coin where we have to consider that this story takes place in the 1920s, where the outlook of life was this dead simple - men and women fall in love where the former seeks beauty and the latter prioritizes wealth. It's just that it's difficult to view The Great Gatsby as a film from that era due to how heavily stylized and modern it looks and feels!

The actual confession attempt in Tom's house and the heated argument in the plaza hotel where Gatsby loses his temper is probably the best scene! That intense ruffle is realistic! And what follows is a series of tragedy! Daisy accidentally killing Myrtle (Isla Fisher) to which Gatsby takes the blame and Tom luring his wife to leave town followed by Gatsby's death is truly heartbreaking! Nothing saddens more to see Gatsby's corpse lying dead in his house, with no one who came to his parties attended the funeral, including Daisy. This sends us the viewer into a major depression just like Nick. At least his story lives on in writing as The Great Gatsby.