Jay Gatsby. |
Disappointing is not how I would normally describe the
Australian director Baz Luhrmann’s movies, in fact quite the reverse. His Moulin
Rouge! (2001) rates amongst my all time favourite’s, I thoroughly enjoyed
the epic Australia (2008) and his
debut film Strictly Ballroom (1992)
was a comic breath of fresh air. But his
latest cinematic outing The Great Gatsby (2013) is the
disappointment I refer too.
The story, as your probably aware, follows the life of
millionaire Jay Gatsby ( As you can probable gather Fitzgerald’s sad
and malevolent story concerns wealth and privilege and how life has no meaning
unless you have these two commodities. Leonardo DiCaprio) a self made man seeking to emulate
high society. Adapted for the screen by Luhrmann and Craig Pearce from F Scott
Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel of the same name. It’s narrated by Nick Carraway (a
miscast Tobey Mcguire) who when the film opens is resident in a sanatorium
where his alcoholism has lead to depression and dissolution with life. Nicks
story starts in New York in 1922 and basically tells of a love affair between
Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan (Carey Mulligan). When the two of them first meet Jay
Gatsby is a poor man and asked Daisy to wait for him to make his fortune and
then they could be married and live a life of greed and excess.
Luhrmann adaptation is as an outlandish spectacle, its
beautiful to look at, its got a great soundtrack co-produced by Jay-Z, the
acting is not exceptional, all except DiCaprio who plays the enigma that is
Gatsby with the indulgence that comes from being an experienced actor. But the
story is dull, dull, dull, bordering on the tedious, we’ve got a bunch of nasty
people that will do any thing to maintain their wealth and power. The main
female character is a woman who can’t be trusted and would only fall in love
with a man if he has an abundance of money to shower upon her every whim. Why
did Luhrmann choose to film this dreadful tale that’s already been adapted four
times? A blemish on the Australian’s oeuvre.
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