The Great Gatsby ... 7.5/10

Rating: 8/10 (6 June 2013)

Baz Luhrmann's adaptation of the classic novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald is certainly a loud, colourful and epic experience, its even in 3D. But does that style necessarily work for a story as delicate as The Great Gatsby? Oddly enough the answer is yes. This radical vision for the story is very much intended for this generation, a good example would be the modern soundtrack. This helped to make the story feel more relevant as you are listening to music that is current today, the way jazz would have been for the characters in 1922. You can take any frame of this film and you would have something worth hanging on the wall, it is stunning. Having said that, the most engaging part of the film is the performance from Leonardo DiCaprio. He is truly on the top of his game here; giving us a confused, vulnerable, loving and at times deranged Jay Gatsby. That is not to take away from the other actors, I was very skeptical of Tobey Maguire playing such a central character but he too pulls it out of the bag. Maguire manages to give us a compelling performance but also is able to step aside when Gatsby becomes the focal point, pulling off a shift of the spotlight that is impossible to do without dynamic and believable chemistry, which they do have. We are also treated to a good performance form Carey Mulligan and the best performance I've ever seen from Joel Edgerton. I was also surprised to be laughing as often as I was, the film has a lot of genuine humour and charm to offer including a hilarious intro for the character, Tom. The problems in the film lye in some of the visuals, as you can imagine some of the transitions are rather lavish and occasionally Luhrmann will go one too far with the effects. There are also numerous sound editing mistakes, which I found unusual for a film as big as this one. There is a dialogue scene which takes place in a moving car, some of the dubbing is laughably bad as you can see his mouth isn't even moving. The film also includes a lot of green screen and CGI which I don't have a problem with as long as it looks perfect. Anything short of that and you've lost the audience for that shot, this happened a few times during a lot of the fast car scenes which were shot with a lot of 3D-tastic camera moves. The car looked fine when it was actually a real car, it was when they inter cut with the CGI car that it looked terribly clunky and awkward. Putting those gripes aside the film is a magnificent work and a commendable effort to give this generation a new way in to this incredible story, a lot of young people will go see the film and come out wanting to read the book.
I saw the film in 2D so I can't comment on the 3D but from what I could gather this looked to be another interesting use of the tool, much like Life of Pi. I will certainly be seeing this again and I highly recommend it to you old sport.