One of only few films I could not watch to the end...

Rating: 2/10 (13 December 2013)

If you can believe it, I actually walked into this film knowing nothing about it, except that it was based on the book "The Great Gatsby". I didn't even know who it was directed by, and I prefer to see films that way. I can always find out anything I need to know after the fact.
The first thing that struck me about TGG was strange color grading. While some scenes have perfectly normal color, some others have what must have been an attempt by the director to give us a sense of some fairy-tale like world. While still trying to figure this film's inconsistent visual style, an even more painful experience surprised me: that of modern music and dancing. From F. Scott Fitzgerald to "Moulin Rouge 2" in a split second. At this point I knew who directed the film...
From then on, The Great Gatsby was one music number after another, with breaks consisting of poor story telling in between.
And about half way through, I found myself walking out. I rarely ever do that, but this was just too painful. It was about as bad as Sofia Copolla's "Marie Antoinette".
Here and there, in all that chaos and failed experimenting with camera, shots, acting and music numbers, I came upon a shot or two which I actually liked. They don't really work within the film itself, but on their own, they were well done. It was some sort of an organized chaos which I admired for its complexity and its lack of story telling power.
I can easily see how die-hard fans will love this piece of kitsch to death; unlike Moulin Rouge which had some good qualities, this film has none of it. The only "quality" is that it can be easily called "Moulin Rouge 2, with barely a story to tell". How do you take a great book and manage to ruin it, is beyond me. At best, this film is kitschy, and at worst - a completely failed experiment. The director confused chaos with creativity.
All in all, this was not worth my time.