It feels like a lose-lose situation when it comes to adapting The Great Gatsby into film form. Often in the conversation when people are considering the “great American novel”, it’s a fantastic tale that means many different things to many different people. I have read it, amazingly enough, and what I remembered most about it was the feeling of ennui and boredom that seems to cover the central characters like an umbrella, underlining the idea that money can’t buy happiness. There’s also a commentary on permitted behaviours in different social classes, and the fluidity of Gatsby’s personal history, a story people keep gossiping about, feels very much about the bemusement of those who have always had money and wealth reacting to someone new to their particularly privileged strata.
While the story is interesting, it’s also one that superficially appears to be one long sequence of parties that go on for a bit too long. Thinking back on The Great Gatsby, I think of those parties. I think of a feeling of haziness, that moment in between pure joy and paranoia, when the time seems too early to leave but you already know you have stayed up too late. You’re going to be in trouble the next day, but that doesn’t matter right now. Right now is all about the music and dancing and good company.
So who better to convey that feeling than Baz Luhrmann, the master of the numerous loud and brash cinematic equivalents of a party megamix?
Leonardo DiCaprio is Gatsby, the enigmatic figure who changes the life of Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire). Their relationship is the heart of the film, although Gatsby has a yearning for Daisy Buchanan (Carey Mulligan), who is already married to the rich, but unrefined, Tom Buchanan (Joel Edgerton), and tension builds between all four characters as the story hurtles towards a finale that may change the lives of everyone forever. Or may prove merely a small bump in the road for those who can speed away from their problems in a fancy sports car.
Adapting F. Scott Fitzgerald’s work for the big screen, writer Craig Pearce and Luhrmann (who have collaborated on almost every other film that Luhrmann has directed) allow themselves plenty of time to unsurprisingly lead viewers into a world of indulgence and excess. That really is Luhrmann’s M.O. A lot of The Great Gatsby is as stylish and beautiful as you would expect from a film set in the 1920s, but Pearce and Luhrmann both do a great job of letting viewers sense something unpleasant beneath the polished veneer. It’s a grand hotel suite, full of flowers and pleasant scents, but one with a decomposing body hidden under the floorboards.
Maguire and DiCaprio are perfectly cast, with the former acting wide-eyes and easily manipulated by those around him while the latter simply embodies what you think absolute charm and charisma wrapped immaculate clothing should look like. Mulligan and Edgerton aren’t as natural a fit in their roles, but both do well, and it’s always believable enough when Mulligan plays someone beloved by those around her (she has had amazing screen presence in every single role of her career). Jason Clarke and Isla Fisher do decent work in their roles, but the real star amongst the supporting cast is Elizabeth Debicki, who I wanted to see much more of. Debicki feels the most at ease in the trappings of the time period, and her character sits nicely in between the extremes of the other personalities in her circle of friends.
I haven’t seen any of the other film versions of The Great Gatsby (I THINK there are about 4 or 5), but it’s hard to imagine them rivalling this. As usual, Luhrmann creates a complete audio and visual blend that both bombards and immerses viewers. He directs his movies like he’s presenting a magic show, plenty of misdirection and distraction delivering straightforward fun in between the moments that show what he was really up to all along.
This may not be one of THE great American films, but it’s a damn fine adaptation of the source material. And it’s a damn fine film. I recommend it to everyone. If you don’t enjoy it then all I can do is apologise, old sport.
Note - I HIGHLY recommend seeing this in 3D if you can. I have the 3D Blu-ray and it was even more brilliant and bedazzling than expected. Although, knowing Luhrmann, I should have known he would have a blast with that format.
8/10
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