The Great Gatsby - 2 smiles

Although Baz Luhrmann interpretation of  “The Great Gatsby” is faithful to the essence of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s great American novel, some of his choices are bizarre. The party sequences, which feature music from the likes of Kanye West and Jay Z, are so wildly out-of-step with the setting and essence of the movie that they’re jarring. The decision to film the movie in 3D seems unnecessary and the occasional use of pop-up words across the screen is juvenile and distracting. And finally, the use of a framing device, with Nick Carraway (Toby Maguire) telling his tale to a psychologist in a sanitarium, seems unnecessary.

The story flashes back to 1922 New York and introduces the main characters. In addition to Nick, who has moved to the city to sell bonds, we meet his cousin Daisy Buchanan (Carey Mulligan), her husband, Tom (Joel Edgerton), and Daisy’s best friend, Jordan Baker (Elizabeth Debicki). Then there’s Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio), the wealthy, mysterious man who lives in a mansion next door to the little cottage Nick has rented for the summer. Gatsby wastes little time in befriending Nick, but his ulterior motive is to reconnect with Daisy and rekindle their former romance. There’s no arguing that DiCaprio looks the part of Gatsby. Unfortunately, the pacing is consistently off and DiCaprio’s Gatsby has bouts of stiffness (which might be intentional, but it’s distracting nonetheless). Maguire’s Nick functions as observer and narrator. Mulligan is unremarkable as Daisy mainly because Daisy’s character is superficial and unremarkable. She has the look of Gatsby’s ‘Golden Girl,’ his unattainable goal and she’s not asked to show much depth. Edgerton is effective as a man who wants both his wife and his mistress. In between instances of excess, there are moments of beauty and Fitzgerald’s themes about love, power and the American Dream are intact. Unfortunately, there’s too much 3D razzle-dazzle and not enough substance. 5/10/2013