The Great Gatsby: Another View by Rob Milarvie
The Great Gatsby is
surely one of the most anticipated films of the year, with its origin in F
Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel. The
film certainly achieves the cinematic vision of the novel, with Baz Luhrmann
fully depicting New York in a colourful and beautiful style that truly reflects
the ever-shifting social and cultural milieu of 1920s America.
The film is about an
aspiring writer, Nick Carraway, who finds himself living next door to a man
with unimaginable wealth in a house that could be mistaken for a castle. This situation evolves into his meeting with
the enigmatic Jay Gatsby and becoming close to him, followed by Nick’s
discovery of some very personal things about Gatsby that explain his wealth and
his need to manifest social hysteria every weekend at his castle-house as the
host of magnificent parties.
With Leonardo
DiCaprio in the leading role of Gatsby, Luhrmann implemented a huge marketing
venture for the film that created high expectations for DiCaprio’s
performance. And DiCaprio does not
disappoint with a great performance, showing why his horror days in Romeo and
Juliet are behind him and executing another performance with the magnitude and
brilliance of Blood Diamond and Django Unchained.
The supporting cast
are also admirable. Tobey McGuire plays
Nick; his performance is conventional and it is unfortunate that the role was
not given to an upcoming actor to get his name out in the film world. Still, Maguire performs the role to a
satisfactory standard and that has to be commended. However, Carey Mulligan is
very good and shows her consistency as a great British actress, building on her
two most recent films prior to Gatsby: Shame and Drive. She fits into the narrative as the lost love
of Gatsby, who is now married to the wealthy Tom Buchanan (Joel Edgerton). Edgerton plays the role very well and
displays a ruthless intelligence as a man who understands Gatsby’s intentions
and hopes to nullify his presence in Daisy’s life.
Finally, the film has
received very much a mixed reception, with many people not liking some of the
alterations from the original text. The
film is better seen as ‘a’ Great Gatsby, not ‘the’. It is a version of the book and I personally
feel Baz Luhrmann has created a very pleasing piece of film.
Comments
Post a Comment