Emotional Essence

Rating: 10/10 (28 May 2013)

F. Scott Fitzgerald tried his hand at writing for the silver screen and was a complete failure. His genius for communicating truths of sweeping depth through simple, subtle, masterfully crafted scenes and details was not well translated into film in his time of linear, stage-like storytelling.
Today, with technology and a well-developed culture of cross- disciplinary artistic collaboration, the craft of filmmaking is able to place before us an array of experiences touching all sensibilities which come together to communicate a story more meaningful than the sum of its parts. This is what was required to really bring what is not just a linear story to the silver screen and do justice to its emotional depth and underlying meaning.
After we're blown away by the sensory overload of Gatsby's desperate excesses and Tom's careless thrill-seeking, Lana Del Rey's plaintive question, "Will you still love me when I'm no longer young and beautiful?" lingers behind the masterful performances that unravel the rest of the story and the nature of the characters involved. The emotion at the core of the story and its purpose for being told at all is communicated creatively and effectively, and is, I think, a testament to F. Scott Fitzgerald's creative legacy- the core of the story itself governs the means by which it is told.