MOVIE REVIEW - The Great Gatsby

One thing I have learned over the years of reviewing movies is this. When you are hearing far more in the hype about who directed the movie, as opposed to the actual movie, that's not usually a good sign.

Quick question.  Do you know who Baz Luhrmann is?   No, I didn't think so. You may know a few of movie movies, Moulin Rouge, Romeo And Juliet, and Australia.  All really interesting movies, but he's certainly not a household name.   So he is the maker of the new version of the classic, The Great Gatsby starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Gatsby.  This also has a nice cast, with Tobey McGuire and Carey Mulligan,  in this adaptation of the F. Scott Fitzgerald classic novel from the 1920's.

You may know the story in some memories of your high school mandatory reading in literature class.  And somewhere in this movie version, the original story still exists, but there have been significant changes.  I'm not sure that was a good idea here.  The idea is that it needs to be updated to be more contemporary in some regards, but it really was not necessary.  Fitzgerald knew what he was doing.  This is more than a story written by him. It is the quintessential story about the hedonism and self indulgence of the roaring 1920's.   It has stood for almost a 100 years on its own.  It may be one of the best novels ever written in many eyes.

Going along with Luhrmann's movie past, this film is very visual and colorful.  There are many parts of this movie that look fantastic, and take you back to the 1920's in a way you have never seen, and that's great.   Huge sets, lavish costumes, wonderful props, vintage cars, and really wonderful scene setting all throughout this movie.  It is set in the 1920's of course, but much of the sound track is a hip-hop mix from 2013.  The music is strangely right on target at times, but not at others.

The problem with this movie though is this.  It is amazingly fatiguing.   Endless party scenes at Gatsby's house, far too many drawn out scenes that go nowhere.   And DiCpario to my eye, seems to be doing a Robert Redford imitation from the 1973 classic of the same movie.   As mysterious as Gatsby is in the original story, what he is here, is simply hollow, shallow and a shadow of the character in the book and earlier versions. This is not DiCaprio's fault, it's poor adaptation.   This should have been a huge part for him, as it turns out, it smacks of poor writing, and a movie maker more concerned on what they could do, and not what they should do.

There is so much effort into making this a visual experience and it falls short on being an entertaining one.  Mistake here was effects and fluff first, and everything else sits in the back seat.  It is a bad movie?  No, but it's certainly a movie that is far more hype than substance.  And that's sad.

The Great Gatsby.  New and different? Yes.   Is it really a great movie?  No. A very expensive underachieving project.