For me, Baz Luhrmann’s movie version
of The Great Gatsby did not
disappoint. Despite critiques from many other fans, I thought it was a great
movie. There are, however, some digs at the film that I’ll admit to agreeing
with.
Just like in the novel, the story is
told to us by Nick Carraway; a WWII veteran who finds himself becoming friends
with the mysterious Gatsby who lives next door. Toby McGuire’s portrayal of
Carraway was good at times, but sometimes I felt he was too over-the-top. This
version of Carraway was too wide-eyed and innocent. Novel-Nick was innocent and
a little naïve as well; however, being as dramatic as McGuire was a little
unnecessary. For example, in one of the early scenes of the novel, Nick visits
his cousin, Daisy, and her husband, Tom, at their mansion in East egg. In the
movie, when he first arrives and sees the house, he stands there with his eyes
wide and mouth open like a little kid on Christmas. I don’t think Nick Carraway
in the novel was quite this childlike. Despite this observation, however, Toby
McGuire did a nice job of narrating the film. Most of the narration was
directly from the book. This made it easy to follow and it didn’t stray too far
from the original storyline.
I felt that the portrayals of the
other four main characters – Tom, Daisy, Gatsby, and Jordan – were very true to
the book. Each of them was very similar to how I pictured them, and their
personalities were just the same. Tom was big and strong, cocky, evil, and
powerful. Daisy was beautiful, innocent, self-centered, and lovely. Gatsby was
obsessive, hopeful, dreamy, and impressive. And Jordan was athletic,
intimidating, and exciting. Another aspect of the movie that I found more than
satisfactory was the costume design. The girls’ dresses were extravagant and
sparkly, the men’s suits were perfectly tailored and just the right colors and
styles, and the people in the Valley of Ashes were grimy and poor-looking.
The plot of the movie matched up
with the novel. Fortunately, it didn’t add in or take away too many things.
What was different was the way the story was narrated. In the film, Nick
Carraway is telling this story to a doctor. The doctor encourages him to write
this story so it will calm him. This new twist on the narration of the story
didn’t bother me too much; however, I felt that putting actual words on the
screen was a little unnecessary. No matter what font the words are put in, it
doesn’t make it any less tacky.
Each situation in the story was like
the novel; however, some seemed to be more dramatic and drawn out than others. One
example is the first party scene at Gatsby’s. In the novel it was a big deal;
it had its own chapter and a lot happened there. But in the movie, rather than
using the scene to continue the storyline, it was just made into this big
ordeal. One critic I saw called it “garish.” I felt that it was a little too
much as well. Another thing was the music, which was used to set the mood in
different scenes, as it is in all movies. Some of the music was fitting, like
Lana Del Ray’s “Young and Beautiful,” which seemed to be Gatsby and Daisy’s
theme. But others, like most of the rap, seemed out of place. They tried to
modify the party scenes by throwing in today’s party music. This almost worked;
sometimes I felt like I could almost understand and get into it. But other
times it was really rather annoying.
All together I loved the movie. I
thought it was entertaining and it really brought the novel to life. There were
things I wished they had done differently, but it wasn’t my interpretation, it
was Luhrmann’s. I would definitely recommend this movie to anyone.
