Director: Baz Luhrmann
Screenplay: Baz Luhrmann, Craig Pearce
Starring: Leonardo Di Caprio, Carey Mulligan, Tobey Maguire, Joel Edgerton
Synopsis is here
The Great Gatsby gracelessly bounds into screens hoping to bowl
you over with its brash, over egged delivery. It's loud, proud and happily
declares itself in every scene. Much like the other works of director Baz
Luhrmann, Gatsby takes a headstrong, music video approach to its material.
Lavish long curtains bellow in the air, cameras swoop and swoon as mass
parties Charleston away to modern hip hop and RnB.
Despite its jazz
age setting, The Great Gatsby reminds me more of a 90's hip hop video more than
anything. To situate F Scott Fitzgerald's classic take of the deterioration of
the American dream with more modern sensibilities is understandable
and considering Luhrmann's previous works, near justified. Unfortunately
2013 Gatsby; despite the modern parallels it could lean on, is less
about the damnation of decadence and all about the melodrama. Much of
Luhrmann's techniques do much to heighten the romantic triangle that lies
within the film. However the metaphor that lies within Fitzgerald's work is
quickly lost in favour of the director's own excess.
Instead of a slow
intoxication of the era, we are slapped across the face with hectic hip hop
editing, over arching performances and mishandled music choices. I would be the
first to defend the likes of Jay-Z in a modernisation of the material. The
rappers lyrics and lifestyle do a certain amount of overlapping with the jazz
age wildness. However the choices placed, often jar with the party scenes we
witness. Unlike previous jukebox collages put together by Luhrmann, the
mixture does little to gel.
The film is so
busy submerging us with information overload (remixed modern music,
crowded visuals, over exposition at every turn) that we often lose track of the
characters of the piece. From Gatsby to Carraway every character is painted in
broad gloss, when it's clear the more could and should be brought from them.
Such motives were fine when we were given the star crossed ciphers that
occupied Moulin Rouge and Romeo and Juliet, as the sources were suited. Gatsby
keeps hinting that more could be done, yet Luhrmann seems more attracted to the
richness of riches than anything else.
We gain little
from wide eyed straight man Tobey Magurie who delivers everything with
little nuance. Mulligan fairs better, bringing a deceptive sweetness to
Daisy while DiCaprio and Edgerton wrestle well with
Luhrmann's outrageousness and attack it with gumption. Yet despite
all its fancy posing and posturing, there's little satirical eye to
the events. The film quickly descends to a simple romance that was
explored stronger within Luhrmann's earlier works. The film is so busy visually
that it gleefully slaps the words of the novel on the screen for no other
reason than constant re-alliteration (and perhaps because it looks fancy
in 3D).
One has to look
hard for moments of wry sharpness through all its grand gesturing. But witness
a party scene in which Nick Carraway is introduced to the infamous Gatsby and
gazes admirably at him while everyone is too busy glaring up at the
fireworks. Gershwin plays in the background in what almost appears as a keen
reference to Woody Allen's Manhattan (1979), a film with its own bittersweet
(yet not as tragic) love triangle. It's a brief moment of intoxication. One
that Gatsby could do a lot more with.
