I’m not
sure how it came about that I was eagerly anticipating The Great Gatsby. I have
no great love of Baz Luhrman although I very much enjoyed Romeo + Juliet when I
re-watched it a couple of years ago. Without the giggly Leo-loving schoolgirls
or the class-room setting (which ruins any good film/book/play) I found the
direction exciting, lively, and evocative. Moulin Rouge on the other hand I’ve
tried to sit through twice and spectacularly failed both times – I think its
crap. I’ve heard very little about Australia
Anyway,
either Luhrman has burrowed into my ‘like’ category of directors without
permission or there were other forces at work. Possibly it’s that external
influences have given me a fondness for all things vintage recently, possibly
it’s because I discovered the existence of the film project as I was reading
the book, or possibly it’s the actors. I really quite like Carey Mulligan,
despite Never Let Me Go and Shame (both disappointing) and Leo really is a very
impressive actor when he wants to be, as I was delightfully reminded recently
by Django Unchained.
Maybe it
was just good marketing.
Whatever
the reason, my excitement as The Great Gatsby was released was stupid. Having
previously read the book I should have been prepared for an otherwise perfectly
good film that made me angry because they changed the colour of a pair of
gloves (or some other such insignificant detail). However, I wilfully ignored
my previous discussion of film vs. book I had only hours-since written in my
Life of Pi blog and continued to be hyper-levels of excited until I actually
took to my cinema seat.
It was
awesome. I say this with some hesitation. What I mean to say is the view, the
scenery, the music, and the glitter, all combined with gratuitous use of 3D
made for a spectacle that inspired awe and wonder. This film is all about the
visuals, and it does it ever so well. Everything was so good to look at and so
good to listen to that I came out of the cinema thoroughly happy. However,
that’s not to say that it is a great piece of cinema. As a film it wasn’t
flawless and if I wanted to delve deeper I could find a lot of problems to
grumble about. This is one to definitely take at face value and indulge in the many
many cocktails, the flowers, the costume and the music. The modern music
apparently – that surprised me and I think it worked really well, although I
know others disagree. The use of Alicia Key’s Empire State of Mind I think was
silly – Sex and the City 2 monopolised use of that song when it was released in
2009/2010, and it has been played to death since. Other than that, it was
fantastic.
Looking
at it at a superficial enjoyment level (which I don’t think does it a
disservice), I could think of 4 flaws in the entire film, all of which are
pretty trivial:
1. Use of
Empire State of Mind (part II), however briefly.
2. One
too many ‘old sport’s from Gatsby – I know it’s his thing but a few of them
were a bit clumsy.
3. The
framing of Tobey Maguire in the final Gatsby-Carraway scene. It just looked a
little odd.
4. I
can’t actually remember the forth. It was probably something petty to do with
the party/soppy bits of plot ratio. Too much soppy.
All in
all, pretty good. I’m not sure if I’ll bother seeing it again unless the screen
is big and the stereo of a good quality. It needs it.
I should
also mention Daisy Buchanan’s diamond ring. Possibly the fanciest and nicest piece
of jewellery
ever – I’ll put one on my birthday list.
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