A Baffling Adaptation to an Overhyped Book

Rating: 2/10 (19 March 2018)

I'm gonna start off by saying that this is not vitriol related to the book. I didn't think the book was really spectacular. It was an interesting period piece for sure, but it really didn't catch me or move me.
This movie. This...this thing, this creation. It's not worthy anyone's time.
Baz Luhrmann as a director has no idea what the hell he's doing. His Romeo and Juliet film was dumb enough on its own (Dancing with guns, enough said), but this film started off in the bottom of the barrel and dug a basement for itself, then fell through to Hell. The beginning sets a bad enough precedent; Nick is apparently institutionalized for anger issues and alcoholism that were never present in the story, and the plot device of him being institutionalized is ultimately pointless. Why the hell would you make such a stupid change when it's largely inconsequential? The infusion of modern radio music leaves me scratching my head even now. The actors for Tom and Nick actually fit their characters relatively well, and DiCaprio does a great job as usual, but for chrissake even their acting couldn't save this trainwreck. If it wasn't for the safety net of the source material, only god knows how much worse Luhrmann could've made this.