Strong DiCaprio and Supporting Performances of Good Adaption Marred by Horrid Musical Soundtrack

Rating: 8/10 (1 June 2013)

If there is one glaring problem of this otherwise very good adaption of Fitzgerald's most famous novel, the post-production music soundtrack editors are the guilty party. For about the first half of the film, the party scenes which provide the backdrop to this story of the Lost Generation and moneyed inequity during 1920's New York is inundated with super sounds of the 21st century, replete with Rap and Hip-Pop. It's as if the filmmakers were afraid that using music from the era, called the Roaring 20's and the Jazz Age for obvious reasons, wouldn't be "intense" enough for modern audiences.
The music from this era, which saw the rise of Jazz from its beginnings in New Orleans and into white culture, is some of the most intense party music ever written and recorded. Instead the filmmakers balked and settled on music which would have never existed in the post World War I era. Duke Ellington, Paul Whiteman, Fletcher Henderson and the immortal Louis Armstrong could bellow on acoustic instruments probably with bigger and more robust sounds than any generic hip-pop musician of today. The sounds accompanying the popping of champagne bottles will be forever fused together. Fitzgerald even wrote a book called "Tales of the Jazz Age" not "Tales of the Hip-Pop Age".
That being said, aside from the questionable music choices, the film is a reasonably good adaption of a story which is nearly un-filmable but has become the 20th-century American novel by which all others are judged. The stand out is without question Leonardo DiCaprio who almost single-handedly saves the entire project. In fact it may be the best DiCaprio performance to date, possibly worthy of an acting nomination. The rest of the cast is strong as well particularly Tobey Maguire as the straight man Nick Carraway.
The movie begins almost like a music video with lots of quick cuts and slow-mo's to the rap and hip-pop which doesn't fit very well with the era it is trying to portray. However, about a third way through, the acting begins to hit its stride and the silly pop music finally starts to wain. Although the story references the crazy parties of the era, it's not about the parties per se, but about the strange love triangle between Daisy Buchanan and her two loves, Jay Gatsby and Tom Buchanan.
Jay Gatsby is the "new money" on the block who holds lavish parties where all the elites of New York come to West Egg to douse themselves with champagne (currently illegal, but what the hell), splash around in swimming pools and throw tinsel in the air for reasons not completely explained except possibly to see if it sticks on the many statues on Gatsby's estate. In this film, Gatby's house rings of an Italian manor house a la the Renaissance which might make a member of the Medicis take notice. The narrator is Nick Carraway, living in a humbler house near Gatsby's servants' entrance, who watches but does not participate actively in the events which follow. The Eyes of Dr Eckleburg, like the eyes of God, are there on a poster in the Valley of Ashes, the industrial and working class area between New York City and the suburbs of East and West Egg. The story concerns how "Nouveau Riche" Gatsby plans to court his former lover, Daisy Buchanan from the clutches of the Old Money, Tom Buchanan, who is probably worth the equivalent of about 9 Windsors.
Despite a number of reservations, such as the music soundtrack, the strange book ends with Carraway telling his story to a psychiatrist at some kind of half-way house (in the book he is disappointed but not mentally disturbed), and the character of Jordan significantly reduced, the adaption is reasonably good. And the performance by DiCaprio as the anxious ladder-climber who wants desperately to fit into the world of elite money, is outstanding. DiCaprio finds the delicate balance between friendliness, phoniness, and ultimate anxiety which is what makes Gatsby one of the quintessential tragic heroes of American literature. His may be the best portrayal of Gatsby ever on screen thus far. Carey Mulligan also makes a fine Daisy, who is not a bad person but only rather flighty and longing for love and fun. A recommended viewing.