A beautifully shot dull film that lacks heart or a strong screenplay!

Rating: 5/10 (23 May 2013)

Visually splendid and the film has a fun soundtrack although doesn't really paint an accurate image and capture the atmosphere of the 20s. The characters were bland and even though you were meant to dislike many of them, there was nothing fascinating about them or particularly interesting or lovable in their characterisation, let's not even talk about development.
Furthermore all Tobey Maguire does is often stare into space having no variation in his acting and seeming bored through most of the film and he makes Fitzgerald's great narration of the book become dull and cheap dialogue, thanks to the script writers. Also the Wilsons who are an important part of the story are met briefly two or three times in the movie despite the fact that more attention should be payed to them instead of non-stop Baz Luhrmann-style parties and funky music.
Gatsby, the most important character seemed much more unsympathetic and unlikable and is portrayed as an asshole who just rubs it in Tom's face that Daisy didn't love him, instead of portraying him as a more heroic, likable mystery figure searching for a lost love.
Carey Mulligan was really pretty but that's all that can be said about her character, oh and to add, a comment I saw in a Star Wars prequel review that's quite relevant - you can't just put beautiful people in beautiful locations and expect them to love each other and the audience to connect with it, this is how the film portrayed their love and it agitated me. In my opinion, Joel Edgerton as Tom was one of the best performances as well as DiCaprio who both did pretty well on a fairly poor screenplay.
Overall, a quite poorly written film with weak characters for the most part and a story doesn't focus on the beauty of the time period at all or possesses the heart of the original material but instead has lots of shots of parties, colourful cinematography and a nice yet uneven soundtrack, although have to admit it was fun at times. As an adaptation, not too great at all. 5.5/10